The Other Paradox
by Rocket Axxonu
Summary: In the midst of a dangerous mission to the past is probably not the best time to fall for your manipulative, former-criminal-mastermind partner. For Captain Holly Short, it was just another nuisance to add to an already unending list of trials. Time Paradox parallel, Holly's perspective.
1. Prologue

_..._

_The Other Paradox (**The Time Paradox – Holly's Perspective**)_

Prologue

At that moment, as they all stood amidst the chaos in Taipei 101, frozen, unsure what to do, she believed Artemis was right—he usually was. Fly them all out, keep the demons out of the reach of the authorities, and let him try to disarm the bomb on the way. It was the only thing that made sense, the only real option.

Every time she stopped and looked back, examining the situation in retrospect, she always saw the logic of how they had acted, of the sequence of events they had followed because of the actions Artemis had had them take. No other option. No other choice. And yet, there were times she still wondered. If she could have predicted back then the enduring torment and unpleasantness that would come of that moment, as her mechanical wings failed and they all spun toward certain death hundreds of feet below, couldn't she have done something differently?

Of course, it was absurd to dwell on the past and what _might_ have happened. So often she had thought back to Commander Julius Root's death, and deep down wondered if there was truly nothing she could have done to save him, but she preferred to live the life he would have wanted, holding her head high, protecting fairies from the Mud People. What is done is done, she often told herself sternly. Look to the future instead of dwelling on the past.

And when she weighed the importance of what was lost with what was gained, what had certainly been the prevention of the disaster of interspecies war and the salvation of an entire family of fairies, logically, was not her own discomfort a small price to pay?


	2. Time Travel Displacement

A/N: Hey there! Well then, as far as AF fanfiction goes, this story is probably going to seem a little unusual, so I'm going to start things off with a bit of explanation.

Firstly, this is not a new story set after/between the books, or an AU, but a parallel. That is, this is _The Time Paradox_, the exact same story and events, but retold exclusively from Holly's point of view. When I finished reading the book for the first time, I was left with a lot of questions, especially concerning Holly's motivations for why she did what she did, both early on and at the end. (I must say, unlike most, I was more thrilled than frustrated with the mystery Colfer left, and those things not fully explained are still part of why _The Time Paradox_ is my favorite of the series.)

Given that I was planning to write a post-TAC fanfiction where Holly's motivations and thoughts surrounding that certain episode were going to play a key role, I wanted to understand Holly as a character and know what would be the most likely explanation for what she was thinking at each point in the book. I also had vague plans for a one or two-chapter flashback, where Holly contemplates those events of TTP that we only saw from Artemis's point of view in the original. (Which I eventually changed my mind about.) At one point, I ended up writing something similar to what I envisioned for that kind of chapter, a heavily summarized version of the first half of the book with a few key scenes. And from there, the seed for this fanfiction was born.

Trying to rewrite the entire text of _The Time Paradox_ was quite an experience for me, and even now I'm still very much in the process of aggressively refining my view of Holly as a character, and my writing style. Thanks for clicking on this story, and I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I enjoyed working on it. _[Author's note, June 2014.]_

Chapter 1: Post-Time-Travel Displacement

The apartment complex Holly had lived in for nearly two decades was not known for its high-class living standards. Sometimes the lights failed or the power flickered, which had caused consternation more than once among adolescents incessantly planted in front of their game boxes, and among middle-aged fairies with a soft spot for certain daytime dramas. The rooms were cramped, even for fairies, and the walls were so thin that Holly had been forced to endure countless evenings listening to overenthusiastic game show hosts and gushing soap operas blaring from neighbors' telescreens. However, that morning all was quiet, as her usual neighbors had all gone off to work.

Holly lay relaxing on her futon in her bedroom, staring at the dust motes under her dresser.

Miraculously, this room and her entire rickety old apartment were precisely the same as she remembered them. When she had first walked in, the futon had been in the same place, the old nutribars still in their packages in the cupboard, and even old laundry lying untouched in the hamper.

This complete lack of change was made all the more astounding by the fact Haven had long-since been suffering an overpopulation problem. Ordinarily there was never any end to fairies clambering to fill a vacancy whenever one opened up, and Holly had not paid rent in three years. But she suspected Foaly might have had something to do with it. When she had first come back from Hybras and asked him where she should ought to stay, he had casually waved a hand and told her she would be fine going back to her old place. She had meant to ask him about it, but she hadn't seen him since then.

_It really is all the same,_ she mused, eyes still fixed on the floor beneath her dresser_. Except for the dust motes._

Holly rolled onto her back, forcing herself to return her attention to what she had been trying to do all afternoon. Gazing up at the small screen of the hand-held communicator, she rapidly input a string of Gnommish.

_Hey there, Mulch. I heard the agency's been doing great. (Doodah Day? Seriously? Hasn't he gone insane yet?) Mind if I stop by sometime? And before you ask, yes, I might pick up something to eat on the way if you agree to behave yourself and keep the ego-tripping to a minimum._

_Trubs, or should I say Commander Kelp now, congrats on the promotion. Better you than Sool, I say. I've been out of it for awhile, so when you get time, what do you say to grabbing a sim coffee somewhere and catching up?_

_Foaly! Honestly centaur, how did you manage to forget to mention you got married while I was gone? I'll drop by the operations booth and you can tell me all about it. And all those new breakthrough inventions you've probably been up to while I was away._

Each time Holly tapped in the words, she would sit for a minute, staring at them, before she reached over with her thumb and depressed the backspace key, and held it until the message was cleared. She had yet to send a single thing.

Sighing, Holly let the hand holding the device fall back against the futon cover, and her eyes returned to the dust motes once again.

"Just send something already," she said. "Just hit the button, Short. It's not that hard."

However, no matter how hard she tried, she simply couldn't. Whenever her finger wandered trembling toward the key, she would picture Mulch sitting at the detective headquarters with Doodah, or Foaly reclining at home with Caballine. "Oh, I almost forgot, Holly's back from Limbo, isn't she?" she could hear them saying breezily. "Wow, listen to this. She must really be feeling like the odd man out—she's practically begging to let her come see us."

Holly shuddered at the thought, and tried very hard to better rearrange her wording. However, no matter what she said, she would look at the words again and find herself wrinkling her nose with disgust. _Pathetic. Desperate._

Why, she wondered, did it always have to sound like she was trying just a little too hard to sound nonchalant. As though she couldn't stand to be alone, and a casual meeting might turn into a full-on shrink session about how oh-so-terrible it was to leave the world and come back to find three years had gone by, and all your friends had completely moved on with their lives.

Holly's brow furrowed. No, she certainly couldn't have them thinking that.

She wondered what she ought to be doing then. Try to be patient, she supposed. Foaly and Trouble were now working to get her reinstated with the LEP as a Recon operative; Section Eight no longer had much use for her services, given that the necessity to deal with Artemis Fowl was over. Still, she wished she could go see them, see how it was coming along. She had to do something or she'd go crazy. Or she could stop by the agency. Mulch was probably just waiting for the opportunity to rub her nose in the fact that he was doing so much better now than it had been when she was there. She'd almost gotten up and gone a half dozen times, but then she'd think of those awkward, slightly pitying expressions, and she'd stay where she was.

Holly's arm laid on the futon, stretched away from her, the communicator in her hand shifting in and out of focus as her eyes moved from it to the dust bunnies just beyond the tiny glowing screen and back again.

_What does it matter what they think anyway?_ she asked herself for about the hundredth time. _So what if they all get into their heads that this missing-three-years thing's made you insecure, or desperate for a bit of interaction like the old days? It's not like you've ever really cared what they thought before._

She answered herself the same way she had the other hundred times.

_The problem isn't what they think. The problem is that it's true, and you don't want to admit it._

Holly got up and went to the dresser to have a look at herself in the mirror mounted on top. She set her communicator aside on the worn, cheap wood surface, before she let her eyes shift to stare at the fairy in front of her dispassionately.

Dark patches hung beneath her now weirdly colored eyes, and her hair was still messed up from a restless sleep the night before, where a bloodthirsty Abbott had stabbed her in the heart and she had seen her own obituary in the fairy virtual newspaper the next day, where she had discovered her life had been of so little consequence that they somehow messed up her name, and listed her as 'Polly Little.' The edges of her eyelashes were flecked with sleep gum, and the loose T-shirt and shorts that served as her pajamas were severely rumpled. Holly had to admit, this person didn't really look much like a captain of the LEP. More like a backward college freshman in her first week after pulling an all-nighter.

"Confidence," she told the fairy in the mirror. "Confidence." She glared at herself for a long moment, then sighed deeply and slumped.

It would be nice, she thought, not to care what anyone else thought. Like Mulch, or Nº1. Just be happy, or angry, or depressed, or whatever, and not be ashamed of it. As it was, she never seemed able to find someone to talk to when she needed it most.

Holly shook her head, trying to shake out the thoughts, but was momentarily distracted as, just then, there was a beep on Holly's communicator as a message came through.

She sighed again. That would probably be some LEP drone, informing her in as few words as possible when she would be going back to work. It could be Trouble or Foaly, not that they would be able to stay on the line more than ten seconds, both being in such high demand at the LEP all the time. But, she supposed, at least finding out she had her old job back would relieve her of at least one stress, and give her something else to think about.

However, as Holly picked up the communicator, she saw the ID on the screen didn't read from the LEP, or even one of her fellow LEP comrades.

Holly's thumb moved automatically to open the text, labeled with a green icon indicating the communication was of a social nature, as per the system the two of them had jointly constructed.

Contact from a human. _Well,_ she thought, fighting the smile she felt slowly spread across her face. _It's better than nothing._

* * *

><p>AN: And that's it for chapter 1. I've never been quite happy with these opening chapters, so I've continued to mess around with them since I first put them up in 2011. Looking over this again in June 2014, I made the executive decision to scrap the last two scenes of the newest version of chapter 1, which I decided were bogging things down and didn't contribute anything of vital importance. (Even though parts of them may possibly be incorporated elsewhere, they're gone for good. I don't think anyone will miss them.)

Sometimes I think endlessly reworking your old writing can get where it's overkill, but I also think it can give valuable insight into where you were in terms of your writing a long time ago, where you are now, and how far you still want to go.

So yeah, I'd love to hear any thoughts you have or initial impressions. Please leave a comment and make my day! (:

Originally posted 9/20/11, Reposted 3/12/12, reposted again 9/30/14


	3. The Natural Question

**Equivalent pages in TTP **(US Hyperion books edition): Pages: 23 – 50

For anyone who is interested in actually going back to compare what I have written to the original, I will be putting up the page numbers of specific scenes that appear in each chapter. The dialogue and such will be based on the US edition, since that's what I have access to, so I apologize in advance to any purists out there. (However, I have listened to the Nathaniel Parker audiobook, and there didn't seem to be too glaring a difference between the two versions from what I could tell.)

Disclaimer: The characters, much of the dialogue, and sadly, even the plot are not mine; they all belong to Eoin Colfer.

Chapter 2: The Natural Question

_Twins! This might be a turning point for you. Who knows? Maybe you'll rise to the occasion and set a good example for them. Or are they already showing signs of having inherited the Fowl gene?_

_If you are speaking of the gift of extraordinary intelligence, that still is, and ever will be, mine alone. If you mean to ask if they appear naturally inclined toward criminal ventures, they are indeed inquisitive, but overall I've observed that they seem, quite bafflingly, entirely normal. But I will mention that Myles is already showing an interest in the sciences, which is promising._

_Phew. Having one criminally minded genius in the human world is headache enough. Oh, by the way, Foaly and Trouble managed to get me a job back at Recon. Kraken Watch. About as exciting as watching stinkworms grow, but at least it gets me aboveground. Took long enough, I think they had some hassle finding me a spot. Honestly, I never thought I'd live to see the day where I came back to the world as a great hero returned from the dead, and everyone wishes they could put me back in the museum where I belong._

Holly was strolling through the thoroughfare on her way to LEP headquarters, grinning a little to herself. _What melodrama, _she thought. Really, a little mission gone a bit wrong, it's not like that's anything new. Why should you suddenly start needing a psychiatrist now?

Merrily humming an old tavern jig under her breath, Holly scrolled through the list of fresh messages she had received that morning. Mulch, of course, couldn't seem to shut up about how well the agency was doing without her famous face to botch up every operation. She also had a memo from Trouble, telling her to get over to his office first thing so he could give her her next assignment, and Foaly wanted her to drop by Ops before she set out, since he had another new gadget he wanted her to test. There was even one nice note from Foaly's wife Caballine. They had been exchanging messages back and forth with for over a week now, and already the two of them had met for lunch a couple of times.

Of course, things weren't the same as they had been before, and there were still awkward moments when someone brought up something she had missed, but she now felt well on the road to getting reconnected and replanting her roots.

Still smiling slightly, Holly noticed that she had a new message from Artemis, in answer to one she'd sent just yesterday. Despite how busy he seemed, he was still remarkably consistent in remembering to keep in touch on a regular basis. She absently flicked it open.

_A museum is not such a bad place to be_. _More archival. Remembered throughout the generations and forever treated with the greatest reverence and respect._

Holly laughed out loud, causing a pixie couple strolling nearby to glance her way. Holly quickly tapped back, _Was that supposed to be a joke? Thanks, but no thanks, Mud Boy. You might enjoy being a fixture at a museum, but darned if I want to end up as one of your twentieth-century art pieces. Excuse me, nineteenth._

_Time-travel displacement,_ she thought, as she put away her phone and concentrated on battling the usual crowd standing between her and LEP headquarters, her brow furrowing with determination. _It's not such a big deal._

* * *

><p>Holly stepped into work that morning, the latest model of jumpsuit Foaly had developed while she had been away zipped up to her chin. The place was mostly empty, though a few workers passed her as she came in, going home for the day. Since she had been put on the Kraken Watch Task force, she had essentially been working a night shift, performing assignments during the day on the surface.<p>

After stopping by _Commander_ Kelp's office—she didn't think she'd ever get used to that one—she headed directly to the operations booth. She found Foaly holed up inside as usual, sitting on his old swivel chair made specifically for centaurs and his eyes glued to the computer screen closest to him as he tapped furiously away at his old-style keyboard. Some things never changed.

"Hey, Foaly. Capt—I mean Commander Kelp just finished filling me in. I'm going to the surface to check out the problem with that sensor. What do you have for me?"

"Right, just a second then." Foaly didn't turn around, making to finish up whatever he was working on.

Holly's eyes wandered the familiar room, stacked with all Foaly's gadgets and various new projects. Despite her persistent attempts to shake it off, the familiar feeling she had been having for the past two weeks crept back yet again. The one that whispered in the back of her mind, _The same, yet not the same._

She quickly shook her head slightly. _Melodrama,_ she thought. _That's all it is._

To drive home the point, she summoned a mental image of Commander Root. _"So it took you three years to complete a mission that saved an entire fairy family. Boohoo. Poor you. Now get over it, Captain Short. Don't expect me to cut you any slack just because everyone thinks you're some kind of national hero now. I really couldn't care less how many movies they make about you."_

Holly blinked, smiling as her eyes burned. Wish you were here, Commander, she thought. I could use somebody to kick me back to my senses.

Holly came back to the present just as Foaly turned at last, smiling hugely at her. It was a grin she knew all too well, the grin of a scientist whose guinea pig had finally just arrived.

Holly couldn't help it. She grinned back.

* * *

><p>The sky was still cast in darkness when Holly reached the surface, but that wouldn't last. Already she could see the deep black of night giving way to purple as the sky continued to lighten.<p>

Many fairies didn't particularly care for the daytime on the surface. Sunlight weakened the power of magic, and dwarfs were especially sensitive to UV rays. However, Holly had never minded it. It was hard to fully appreciate the breathtaking views the surface had to offer in the dark, and there was something to be said about flying through an endless expanse of blue sky on all sides, sunlight glittering off the surface of the ocean. Especially when you had a brand new set of wings to test out.

There are some perks to skipping ahead three years, she thought, swooping low enough to the waves below she could feel a misty spray against her suit, then swinging back up to a proper long-distance flying altitude.

Along the way to her destination, Foaly thought he would try to entertain her, and played a human audiobook file featuring a kraken. Holly was more annoyed than amused.

"It's so typical of humans, Foaly, to take something perfectly natural and demonize it," she said, particularly offended by the 'kill, kill, kill' bit at the end. "Krakens are gentle creatures, and the humans turn them into some kind of murderous giant squid."

Foaly was more easygoing. "Come on, Holly, it's just sensational fiction. You know those humans and their imaginations. Relax."

Holly took a deep breath, forcing herself not to run off on a rant. There were so many injustices in the human world, sometimes it was all she could do not to stew over it for hours. Most fairies were more like Foaly, and just rolled with it, but Holly had never been able to do that. Injustice was injustice.

They bantered for a bit more, until at last Holly reached the location of her assignment and had to cut the conversation short. Time to get to work.

* * *

><p>"Okay. Potential disaster averted, and our good deed done for the day. Kick up your boots and head back to the shuttle station. I have no doubt that Commander Kelp will want a detailed report."<p>

No doubt he will, Holly thought, and probably be a bit jealous besides. Nearly getting blown sky high by a kraken's explosive shedding process while trying to save a bunch of hapless, idiotic humans would rank high in Trouble Kelp's book of 'good fortune.' He probably would have even tried to cut it a few seconds closer.

Holly was about to respond, but she hesitated, noticing an icon appear in her visor.

"Just a second, I have mail."

Foaly was impatient. "Mail! Mail! Do you really think this is the time? Your power levels are down, and the rear panels of your suit have taken a severe pasting. You need to get out of there before your shield fails altogether."

Holly felt a growing sense of foreboding as she gazed at the icon. It was from Artemis, and it flashed a threatening red color in the lower left corner of her visor. In the color coded system they had arranged, red stood for _urgent_. Apprehensively, Holly opened the message.

"I need to go to Ireland," she said abruptly.

Foaly had seen the message too, and he didn't object. Instead, he started putting together a list of options for excuses he could make for her, for which Holly was grateful.

But even as Holly took control of her engines and shot off through the sky, a cloud of anxiety settling over her, a part of her—the hardened, wily side that made her such a good officer—could not completely stamp out a slight suspicion that, in that moment, formed at the back of her mind.

She and Artemis had become good friends certainly, and she was glad to have had someone to talk to after the time-jump thing. But that didn't mean she had suddenly turned blind or lost her memory. In her experience with Artemis Fowl, he was often the big, fat spider sitting right smack in the center of a web of lies and half-truths, manipulating everyone else caught in the web for some purpose, some goal.

She tried to dismiss the thought as soon as it came, to tell herself to have a little faith. But even so, a part of her found herself silently asking the only natural question. _What are you up to now, Artemis? What are you up to now?_

* * *

><p>AN: Ah, this chapter...I hate to say it, but my generally feeling toward this one has always been that this particular chapter is the worst of the entire fanfiction. (Along with maybe chapter 27.) This part in the original TTP is just so good at what it did (starts out with Foaly showing Holly the kraken audiobook file, which directs our attention to Holly's opinion of humans in general, moves on to Caballine and Holly's feelings of being left out, mentions Mulch's role in previous books which sets up his appearance later, goes into a bit of an action scene [that later proves vital to the book's climax], and so on), but I obviously didn't want to insert the entire scene here, so I wanted to find a way to clip it out in a natural-feeling way.

This is my most recent version [June 2014], and I think it's a great improvement over what I had last, but I think it could still use work. Oh well, I suppose writing is an ongoing process, yeah? :j

Posted 9/24/11, reposted 3/12/12, reposted again 9/30/14


	4. A Liar and a Thief

Disclaimer: The characters, much of the dialogue, and sadly, even the plot are not mine; they all belong to Eoin Colfer.

Pages: 54 – 58

Chapter 3: A Liar and a Thief

_Mother dying. Please come at once. Bring Nº1._

Questions chased each other around inside Holly's head as she flew at top speed on her way to the manor.

Artemis knew the potency of fairy magic; even non-warlock elves had power strong enough to heal almost any injury, no matter how severe. In fact, Artemis had seen firsthand many times what Holly's magic could do. She had once given his father a nearly complete magical makeover after two years trapped in the Arctic, rescued his mother from spiraling deeper into depression and completely losing her mind, saved Butler from mortal injuries at least twice, and even made Artemis himself as good as new when his own broken ribs had punctured his chest.

So what could have unnerved him so much he felt they needed Nº1? Perhaps he just wanted to play things safe, but even so, it seemed a little extreme. Or was it? It was his mother's life after all. If there was one situation that justified his being a little dramatic, surely it would be that. As she knew only too well.

Holly stared straight ahead, at the choppy ocean waves on the horizon, and tried not to think about it, tried not to feel it. Yet in spite of her best efforts, she felt those things she had been trying to keep deeply buried for two decades worming their way to the surface of her mind.

_I'll help you, Artemis_, she thought. _Just wait there. I won't let it happen to you, too._

Holly opened the throttle a little more, and shot through the bright, cerulean sky.

* * *

><p>Half certain they would be able to fix the problem with ease, half dreading some kind of apocalyptic catastrophe, Holly reached the manor by mid-evening. The first thing she did was run a thermal and from the heat signatures she quickly located the house's occupants. Three in one room on the lower level, one in an upstairs bedroom, and one in another room. Holly headed for the lower level room, figuring that in terms of probability, she had the best chance of finding Artemis there.<p>

Holly carefully placed a toe on a sill. Putting her omnitool to work on the lock mechanism, she heard a soft click, and she pushed it open and slid inside. She balanced there a moment, looking down on the scene below.

As she had guessed, one of the three people she had picked up on her scanners was Artemis Fowl. Dressed as always in a neat black suit, he sat at the end of a long table with a crystalline glass surface in the company of two other figures, all three seated in expensive-looking black leather armchairs. Long shadows weaved back and forth across the floor like a spider web, and darkness seemed to swallow the corners. In short, the place looked suspiciously like a set for a scene of a shady business deal in a Bond movie.

One of the other people in the room was, of course, Butler, Artemis's ever faithful bodyguard, and the other Holly immediately recognized as the man she had saved and healed in the Arctic a few years back. Artemis Fowl Senior, Artemis's father.

They appeared to be in the middle of some kind of quietly tense discussion. Holly could not reveal herself with Artemis Fowl the First right there, so she hung back. Artemis had probably not been expecting her so soon.

However, Holly could not help but notice that the very moment she moved the window glass, Artemis's mismatched eyes flickered to where she crouched in the sill, invisible, and she knew he knew she was there. She lowered herself to the floor and cautiously approached, though still keeping to the shadows.

"I absolutely believe it, Father," Artemis said, eyes going back to Artemis Senior. "More with every minute."

Artemis's thin face was even paler than usual, drawn and tense. But far from his usual shrewd, calculating look, the spark in his eye held something more like hope.

Artemis Senior gazed back. "That's the spirit, son."

The voice of Artemis Fowl the First was an unfamiliar one to Holly and she tried to remember if she had ever heard him speak before now, or even seen him conscious. She shifted her gaze to get a better look at him, and was startled to discover that his eyes were precisely the same shade of blue as Artemis's, or the blue they had both been before Hybras. But it wasn't just the color—the look of such unbreakable, absolute determination was exactly the look she had seen in the hardness of Artemis's sharp eyes so often when they were in an impossible situation, or had just reached a tricky part of a complicated plan. Apparently Artemis's stubbornness was inherited.

Besides the fact Artemis had one hazel eye—Holly wondered what he must have told his father about that one, as Artemis clearly wasn't wearing a colored contact to cover it up—the resemblance between the boy and his father was almost uncanny. It occurred to her that in looking at this man, she may well be getting a glimpse of what their little Mud Boy may look like twenty years from now. A grown-up Artemis—Now there was a strange thought. Mud People certainly had such fleeting lives. But she couldn't help but think that a part of her would still always think of Artemis as that twelve-year-old boy she had met all that time ago.

The two didn't move for several seconds, and Holly noticed Artemis Fowl Senior's hand over Artemis's, an uncommonly affectionate gesture among Fowls. But though the two both looked pale and somehow older than they really were, anyone could see they were far from defeated.

Artemis Senior nodded once and got to his feet. "Good. Then does everyone know what he's doing? We are not going to let this happen."

Butler and Artemis stood up as well, and it felt odd to Holly to see the way they both seemed to look to Artemis Senior as the leader, even Artemis.

"Yes," Butler said tersely. "I should go immediately. Good luck to us all."

Butler, shooting one surreptitious look right at the place Holly stood, turned and strode quickly to the door.

"And I will return to Mother's room to set up the Webcam," said Artemis.

"Good boy, Arty," said Artemis the First. "And once you do, make sure you get a line to those underworld contacts you mentioned earlier." He gripped his son's shoulder and gave Artemis a look that struck Holly as strange for a father to give a son. The sort of look a drowning person might give to the lifeguard, a desperation to be saved.

Apparently, everyone always turned to Artemis for solutions to difficulties, even his own parents.

* * *

><p>Artemis and his father left the Bond-setting-like conference room soon after, both heading up the stairs, barely speaking as they went. Holly held back a moment, then followed them at a distance. They split off as Artemis Senior headed up for the roof to the Fowl aircraft, and Artemis turned toward his mother's room.<p>

"_We __**will**__ cure her, Arty,"_ Artemis Senior had said before they parted ways, though he had looked as though he was reassuring himself as much as his son. _"We'll do everything we can and then some. We won't let her go."_

_Cure_. Holly felt a chill. This situation was beginning to feel all too familiar, a replay of one of the most painful experiences of her life, that still continued to torment her to this day.

_No,_ she told herself. _Not the same. Because we're going to save her. Or Nº1 will save her. Artemis won't have to go through what I went through._

Holly followed Artemis Fowl Senior's progress up to the flying transport vehicles on the roof with the thermal radar scanner on the inside of her visor, making certain that he was long gone and away before she stepped into Angeline Fowl's bedroom. She found Artemis working at the foot of the bed to set up the Webcam to allow his mother's condition to be viewed remotely before at last powering down her shield.

Holly put a hand on his shoulder. "Artemis, I am so sorry."

"Thanks for coming, Holly," replied Artemis, voice surprisingly calm and businesslike as usual. "You got here quickly."

Holly explained briefly about her aboveground mission with the kraken.

Artemis strangely did not cut right to the point. "Ah yes," he said, "Tennyson's beast." His voice was light and conversational as they talked a bit more about the creatures. "Not many krakens left now. Seven, by my reckoning."

"Seven? We're only tracking six." Holly eyed him suspiciously until Artemis quickly changed the subject.

Holly had a feeling the conversation would have continued to meander aimlessly in the same way had she not received mail. She checked it. "Nº1 is on the way," she told him. "They're sending the Section Eight shuttle. No way to contain this now, so whatever we need to do has to be done fast."

"Good," said Artemis, nodding. "I need all the help I can get."

Neither of them said any more, and the reminder of why they were there seemed to have effectively killed the illusion that the moment of light, casual conversation had brought, that this was just any ordinary social visit between friends. The air in the room seemed to grow suddenly heavy and stifling with anxiety.

Artemis turned his attention back to putting up the camera, but it slipped through his long fingers and rolled under the bed, a moment of clumsiness that was most uncharacteristic of him.

"Hellfire," he muttered, kneeling down to retrieve it. She heard him continue to mutter, "I can't...I just can't..."

Unexpectedly then, Holly felt a hard blow, as though she had just been punched in the stomach.

Artemis had stopped moving and it took her a moment to realize that the sudden storm of emotion was her magical empathy, heightened by close proximity.

"What kind of son am I?" he asked suddenly, a quiet bitterness in his tone. "A liar and a thief. All my mother has ever done was love me and try to protect me, and now she may die."

In all the years she had known him, Holly had never heard Artemis speak like this. The closest thing she could remember was when Butler had very nearly been killed by one of Spiro's men, and Artemis told her mournfully, _"He stopped a bullet that was meant for me." _But even that slight break in his composure could not compare to how he was now.

For a moment, Holly didn't know what to do. Artemis hated letting other people see him like this, she was sure, and she felt like an intrusive outsider. It should have been Butler or Artemis Fowl Senior standing here, she knew—those two would have known what to say to support this boy who was to everyone else an infallible pillar of genius. The way Foaly and Trouble and the others were not in a position to provide immediate relief for what she had felt in returning from Hybras as, even if they were her friends, they were not people she wanted to ever see her weak, she was simply not the right person to be here.

As she stood there, uncomfortable, irresolute, staring uncertainly at Artemis, she suddenly caught a glimpse of the left side of his face, and his hazel left eye.

And then, strangely, she felt her discomfort melt away as quickly as it had come. _I'm the one who left this dimension with him and came back to a missed three years,_ she thought._ Not Artemis Fowl the First. Not even Butler. Me._

Gently, Holly took hold of his elbow and pulled on it lightly, urging him to his feet. "You're not that person anymore, Artemis," she assured him, putting every bit of certainty she could muster into her voice, "and you love your mother, don't you?"

She was glad when she saw her words seemed to have the desired effect.

"Yes," he replied, and the dark mood from just a moment before seemed to pass as quickly as it had come. She saw self-consciousness and embarrassment as he glanced away from her. "Of course."

Holly went on soothingly, continuing the logic of her argument to reinforce her point. "Then you are a good son," she said. That was the only way to speak to Artemis, really: with logic. "And your mother will see that as soon as I cure her."

Holly had managed to take the edge off Artemis's anxiety for the moment, but really the best thing for him now would be for him to see his mother well again. There was no point delaying it; the sooner she did what needed to be done, the sooner Artemis would get back to his usual snide, conniving, arrogant self. The way he was acting now, like he was actually sorry about something, didn't suit him in the slightest.

Holly extended a hand toward Angeline Fowl's sickly form, drawing her magic down into her fingers. Holly refused to allow her eyes to wander to the woman's pale, deathly ill face, as unwelcome images flickered at the edge of her thoughts, trying to push their way in. Sparks were visible at Holly's fingertips now, clustered tightly together, twisting faster and faster, as though even the magic could sense her agitation. She was ready.

"No," said Artemis unexpectedly, a strange note of urgency in his tone. He added hesitantly, as though regretting the force of his outburst, "Wouldn't it be wise to check the symptoms first?"

Holly abruptly cut off the flow of magic and she turned her head to eye him, suspicions aroused again.

Something was definitely amiss. Now that she thought about it, it was strange for him to get so worked up, so emotional if it was probable that his mother would be simply cured by magic. Artemis's behavior was clearly not the nagging worry of a person who had the cure, but feared something might go wrong; he seemed really desperate, like there was nothing anyone could do. And he had specifically asked for Nº1.

There was only one way Holly could think of that Artemis could possibly know that magic wouldn't work.

Holly pulled off her helmet so her searching gaze would be unimpeded. She moved right up close, frowning hard as she stared at her devious friend, as though she could read his mind if she concentrated hard enough.

She had long since wondered if Artemis might not have been lying to her back then, when they had first returned from Hybras. He had temporarily gained a bit of magic in the time tunnel, and maybe he held onto some sliver of magic after all, even if he had point-blank denied it at the time. Could Angeline's illness be the result of some magical experiment gone awry? Or perhaps, though she hated to think it, this was all part of the beginning of some new scheme that somehow required her and Nº1 to be here.

"Have you done something, Artemis?" she asked sharply.

Artemis did not look away, and not even the slightest flicker of guilt passed across his features as he replied. "No. I am more cautious with my mother than I would be with myself, that is all."

Holly wanted to believe him, and he looked entirely sincere. But this was Artemis Fowl and she wasn't soon to forget it.

Artemis tried to argue as she took hold of both sides of his head solidly, and forced it down low enough so she could touch her forehead to his—had he gotten taller?—allowing her own magic to permeate his skull, just enough to see.

She knew she could not continue dealing with Angeline Fowl's problem yet, not until she knew for sure there was nothing else going on here. That this wasn't one of Artemis's games.

After barely a moment, she pulled away, relieved. "Nothing," she pronounced. "Echoes of magic. But no power."

Artemis was impatient for Holly to take a look at Angeline, even though she didn't doubt Artemis's knowledge base concerning esoteric illnesses was far greater than her own. In fact, she privately thought he should have considered himself better qualified to give a diagnosis, but there was something about this particular disease that had unnerved him.

Holly still hesitated. She would have preferred to simply heal Angeline without really looking at her. The sharp, painful memories of her own mother were swarming at the edge of her mind, trying to get in, trying to overwhelm her. "I'm sorry about the probe," she said, stalling a second longer. "I had to be sure that I could take all of this at face value."

"My feelings are unimportant. Now, my mother. Please."

Holly took a deep breath and lifted her eyes to Angeline's face. The moment she did, she felt a swooping sick feeling in her stomach, and once again as they had above Helsinki harbor where the kraken had exploded, the memories overtook her.

* * *

><p>AN: So, the first scene with extensive use of borrowed dialogue in this chapter. I didn't think there was much choice in this case, though. Actually, it seems like the scenes that are actually in the book already are harder to work with than scenes made from scratch, since it's so hard not to make the dialogue come across sort of stilted and awkward...

Ah, I hope none of this (especially all the internal monologue X3) has become too tedious. I'll keep pushing myself to edit and improve my writing as best I can, so I'll be happy if at least a few people stay interested in this enough to keep reading. (:

Anyway, thank you for the reviews last chapter; please tell me what you think! (:

Posted 9/30/12, reposted again 9/30/14


	5. A Life for a Life

Disclaimer: The characters, much of the dialogue, and sadly, even the plot are not mine; they all belong to Eoin Colfer.

Pages: 58 – 75

Chapter 4: A Life for a Life

"_I'm sorry, Miss Short. But I'm afraid there's nothing we can do. Your mother has about a week to live."_

Holly stood there next to Angeline's bed, stunned. "I know this," she said faintly. "I know it." And she knew, if this was what it looked like, just as for her own mother, there was no hope.

Holly stared at the thin, skeletal form of Angeline Fowl, the clear gel on the surface of her skin that instantly burned away from her fever only to be replaced by more.

Holly drew out her medi-kit to take a sample of the gel. She stared at it, a growing sense of dread in the pit of her stomach. This could be about more than Artemis's mother. This could put every fairy alive in jeopardy. In an instant Holly was shoving on her helmet to contact Foaly in Police Plaza, shutting Artemis out despite his many unanswered questions.

"Foaly? Are you there?"

Artemis gave Foaly his password to patch through to the Fowl Manor systems, and through the webcam and various screens around the room Foaly took a long, hard look at Angeline. It took no time at all for him to be convinced of Holly's analysis.

"It's impossible," Foaly said, though without conviction. "We eradicated this years ago."

Artemis was quickly growing frustrated at being left out of the loop. "_What_ is impossible? Eradicated _what_?"

Foaly refused to tell Artemis anything before taking a direct scan of the gel oozing from Angeline's pores to be sure. He had Holly place her palm over the woman's forehead, so that her glove's omnisensor could retrieve whatever information Foaly required.

Holly breathed in the smell of lilies through her helmet filter as she waited, and the time seemed to stretch an eternity despite the fact she already knew what the results of the scan would be. This smell, a smell far too sweet it would seem to possibly ever be associated with such a horror, made it certain.

When the sensor had done its work and Foaly gave the okay, Holly straightened and stepped back.

Holly could feel Artemis's frustrated, questioning gaze on her, desperate to know. She felt queasy, and could not bring herself to speak. Instead, she reached over and took the boy's hand in her own as they waited for Foaly's report.

Foaly was uncharacteristically somber. "The computer has analyzed the gel. I am afraid it's Spelltropy."

Holly's hand tightened convulsively around Artemis's. Saying the word aloud somehow made it all the more real.

Artemis was done with patiently waiting, kept in the dark. He ripped his hand forcibly from Holly's grip as he went over to Foaly's image on his mother's wall-mounted television screen. He demanded harshly, "I need an explanation, Foaly. Now, please."

"Very well, Artemis," he said with a slight sigh. Then he said quite concisely, cruelly so, "Spelltropy was a plague among the Fairy People." Foaly then continued, explaining about the remarkable speed of the disease's progression, its invulnerability to almost any form of therapy, and the fearsome way it attacked and broke down the body. And, of course, that it was always fatal.

An excruciatingly painful disease with no cure, that was what Spelltropy was. The more Foaly said, the more a dark, invisible weight seemed to settle inside the room and Holly found she could not seem to breath properly.

The only real comfort in all this was that now that they knew about it they could keep the situation under control, keep the disease from spreading by preventing Angeline from having any magical contact with anyone before her soul departed this world. Though Holly knew that wouldn't be much consolation to Artemis. Thoughts of her own mother pricked her mind, and she realized that what had happened to Coral Short wasn't so different from this. Her submarine had been drenched in rancid radiation, and her mother had died a slow, agonizing death.

_They did it,_ Holly thought. _The humans._

Holly shook her head and crossed the room, putting a hand on his shoulder again. She knew there was nothing she could say, but she had to say something.

"Artemis," she said gently. "There are things we can do to make her comfortable."

Artemis forced her hand away, almost as though he were angry with it. She could see it in his eyes again, he was not going to give up. She should have known that about him. But how she hated the thought of seeing him at that moment when he was finally forced to accept the truth.

"No," said Artemis, and his eyes were wide with defiance, face was almost wild. "I can achieve wonders. I have talents. Information is my weapon."

Then he seemed to grow calm once again, coming back to himself. He turned back to Foaly, composed now, as though he had suddenly gone into a different mode entirely. An information-gathering mode, cold and analytical as a computer.

"You said that this Spelltropy was a plague—where did it begin?"

Despite his love of lecturing, this time Foaly did not seem eager to elaborate. However, he did explain. Spelltropy was born of magic, magic tainted by the incredible pollution levels pumped into the earth's atmosphere. It first appeared about twenty years back, and because the disease was communicable through magic, that made it immune to magical treatment. The disease had swept unhindered through the fairy people, reducing their numbers by a staggering twenty-five percent.

"But you stopped it," Artemis pointed out. "You must have found a cure."

Holly looked to Foaly as well. She knew the ultimate answer to Foaly's question, that there _was_ no cure for Spelltropy, not any longer, but she was almost as little familiar with the details as Artemis.

"Not me," admitted Foaly, shrugging. "Our old friend Opal Koboi found the antidote."

Holly started a little. She had completely forgotten Opal's involvement, perhaps because back then she had not known the pixie as a homicidal maniac. In general, she tried to think of the unstable, deranged fairy as little as possible.

When Foaly went off on a bit of a tangent about how Opal had tried to charge a fortune for her antidote and the upper echelons among the fairies had had to force her to give it up, Artemis seemed to grow understandably edgy again.

"I don't care about the politics Foaly," he snapped, the look of open impatience abd barely contained hostility slashing through his ordinarily cool features like a knife. "I want to know what the cure was, and why we can't administer it to my mother."

"It's a long story," Foaly hedged uncomfortably, and Holly looked at him oddly, wondering what was up.

"Abbreviate," Artemis shot back harshly.

Foaly didn't seem able to look Artemis in the eye and Holly's whole frame was tense as she stared at the centaur. Something was clearly wrong, but she couldn't figure out what. After all, Foaly had already told Artemis that there was no cure for the disease anymore, that Angeline Fowl was going to die. So why would he be reluctant to go on now? Any other revelation couldn't get any worse than what he had already put forth. Right?

Foaly spoke in a flat, dull monotone as he explained. "The cure occurred naturally. Many creatures contain important pharmacopoeia and act as natural magic enhancers. But because of human activities, more than twenty thousand of these potentially lifesaving species are made extinct every year..."

As Foaly talked on, Holly's eyes migrated from the centaur to Artemis. As soon as Foaly stopped talking, Artemis suddenly froze, and what little color there was drained from his face.

Artemis had evidently understood what was wrong. Holly saw some sort of understanding pass between the two.

It was Holly's turn to be out of the loop and her eyes flickered between them as they continued to stare at each other.

Artemis suddenly bowed his head, and he pressed his hands hard against either side of his skull.

"Oh no," he said, with such a note of desperation in his voice that for a moment Holly felt a flicker of fear. After seeing how strange Artemis had been acting since she had arrived, she had not thought that he could speak in yet another tone that would be still yet even more disturbing to her. "Don't say it," he whispered, and it was like he was almost pleading.

Foaly went on however, relentless now. "Opal Koboi found the antidote in the brain fluid of the silky sifaka lemur of Madagascar."

Artemis did not seem to be listening anymore. He was muttering to himself, head in his hands, "I always knew that this would come back."

Foaly continued, "Unfortunately, the silky sifaka is now extinct. The last one died almost eight years ago."

Artemis's hands fell slowly from his face, but his head remained bowed, as though all the energy had been sucked from his thin frame. The premature wrinkles about his eyes somehow seemed more pronounced than usual, as though in the span of a few minutes he had suddenly aged. Artemis's voice was normally so strong, so full of purpose and authority, but when he spoke now, it came out feeble, weak.

"I know," he said softly, "I killed it."

For a second, Holly froze where she was, certain she had heard wrong. She looked slowly from Foaly to Artemis, then back again.

"Yes," said Foaly simply, staring at the human boy before him just as Artemis lifted pained eyes back to the screen. The centaur did not look angry, but neither was there any pity in his long face.

Each continued to stare into the face of the other until Holly finally cut in, her voice coming out a bit too loud in the reigning quiet. She felt distantly as though it were someone else speaking, someone else standing here, witnessing this. "What?" she said. Then she hesitated, shooting a glance at Angeline Fowl. But the sick woman slept on, unaware of the drama unfolding in her bedroom.

Holly continued, dropping her voice. "What are you two talking about?" She turned from Foaly, the muscles of her face tightening so that her expression was somehow both angry and pleading at the same time, to the boy standing in front of her. "Artemis?"

Artemis did not meet her eyes. He did not seem to want to look at anyone.

"What do you mean you killed it?" Holly heard herself demanding. "What are you talking about, Artemis?"

She saw Foaly glance back at the human boy.

"You better explain," the centaur told him. "I don't know any of the details anyway."

Artemis still looked deeply shaken, but he gave a small nod. Closing his eyes, he pressed his fingers hard to either side of his temple, concentrating. When his eyes opened, Artemis was composed once more, at least outwardly.

"I suppose it began with my father's disappearance five—no, eight years ago."

He began the story by describing the time before his father had been kidnapped. How his father and his mother had been having disagreements about Artemis Fowl Senior's business ventures, and how his mother's concern for the well-being of the planet in addition to her family caused her husband's work to bother her a great deal.

His father had decided then to give up his criminal career, but only after one big deal that would give them enough money to be able to pursue legitimate enterprises successfully. But of course, it was during that last expedition Artemis Fowl Senior would vanish.

Artemis went on to explain how, as soon as the kingpin of all the Fowl activities was unaccounted for, presumed dead, the Fowls suddenly found themselves low on funds. They had countless debts to pay off, while those that owed his father saw an opportunity and bolted rather than cough up—After all, there was no longer anyone left to chase them down. In addition, Artemis wanted to keep the expedition he had sent out to hunt for his father going, and get new equipment to give the search a better chance of success.

Artemis was able to say all this in the same even, almost clinical tone with which he had begun, like he was reading off a list of rules concerning a company's insurance policy, but when he opened his mouth and started to explain how his mother had refused to acknowledge his father's disappearance, and had continued to spend money as always in her quest to 'save the world,' Artemis suddenly stopped talking.

Without even looking at Holly or Foaly, who stared at him, and without his calm expression changing in the slightest, he suddenly walked past Holly as though he could not see her and sat in a chair by Angeline's bed. He tenderly took one of his mother's hands, cradling it between his own, gazing at his mother's face, drawn and sickly as it was.

Afterward, he continued speaking in a tone that did not indicate there had been any interruption.

He told them how he had gone to his mother's room one day to confront her about fifty thousand euros she had spent and found her distraught and crying. Instead of comforting her, he had told himself to be strong so that he could save his father, and so demanded to know where the money had gone.

When Angeline finally remembered that she had spent the funds on a silky sifaka lemur, a creature thought to be extinct, Artemis was frustrated beyond belief.

At first, young Artemis had tried to argue the folly of what his mother had done, but quickly changed tactics, pretending to be only innocently interested in the lemur to ease his mother's suffering, deciding it would be better not to cause her additional grief as reality slipped further away from her.

Instead, as he left his mother's room and went to see his bodyguard, he made plans to go to the nearby nature reserve where the lemur was being held temporarily.

It was at this point that Holly broke in, unable to keep quiet any longer.

"So in a fit of childish pique you murdered the lemur," she accused.

Without taking his eyes off his mother, Artemis replied in an even tone, "No. I used to suffer from the occasional fit of pique, as you well know, but they generally did not last. An intellect such as mine cannot be overpowered by emotions for long."

"But you said you killed the animal," said Holly, frowning, trying to understand.

Artemis assured Holly that he had indeed killed the lemur, even if he himself hadn't committed the act personally, but afterward he seemed to lose some of his earlier momentum and didn't appear particularly eager to continue. So Holly had to keep pressing Artemis relentlessly to tell her exactly how he had done away with the creature.

Those details were, of course, irrelevant to their predicament, but Holly pushed him anyway. Something inside her was driving this unnecessary interrogation, this need to know all the circumstances. She had gotten so used to thinking of Artemis as the boy who had waited for death with her atop a Temple of Artemis replica, who had gone out of his way to save Minerva Paradizo, a girl whose mistakes reminded him so much of his own, and who had once brought Holly back to life. Being shocked back to remembering the boy she had first met when he was twelve was an unwelcome surprise in the midst of an already gut-wrenching crisis.

Holly tried to keep her head cool, but she couldn't help but remember that part of her mother's job with the LEPmarine had been protecting species close to extinction, and here Artemis had been all along, contributing to the Mud Man disease ravaging the planet. It felt like a personal betrayal.

"How did you kill the lemur?" she pressed. "How did you even get hold of it?"

So Artemis finally told them. He had not killed the lemur himself while throwing a tantrum over what Angeline Fowl had done. He had not had Butler kill it out of spite. No, it was about money. With Artemis Fowl, it always was.

* * *

><p>When Artemis told them how he had sold the animal to group known as 'the Extinctionists,' it didn't take a genius to realize what that meant, and Holly felt a thrill of horror.<p>

"It was my first big deal," said Artemis. "I delivered it to them in Morocco and they paid me a hundred thousand euros. It funded the entire Arctic expedition."

Feeling sick, Holly slowly inched away from him. She'd thought she'd been growing to know him, thought he was different from the humans who had been responsible for her mother's death.

Artemis wasn't done talking. "I rationalized the whole thing," he said quietly, glancing at Holly's expression, then looking away. "My father for a lemur. How could I not go through with it?"

Holly felt an unwilling pang, despite herself. She knew how much Artemis loved his parents. But she quickly pushed it away—exchanging a life for a life, that was still what it was. Killing the innocent lemur, the last of its kind, for quick money. It was like a direct attack on her mother's memory, on nature, on every fairy belief. Even if he argued that doing so could provide a remote chance of saving his father, that couldn't possibly be right.

"I know," he said, meeting Holly's gaze this time, despite her the disgusted look on her face. "It was a terrible thing to do. If I could turn back the clock..."

He stopped. His face, tense with guilt, suddenly smoothed, eyes glassy. He seemed to stare right past her as though she wasn't there, seeing something no one else could.

He set down Angeline's hand and stood up slowly, apparently still unaware of the presence of his two fairy friends. Moving away from his mother's pain-stricken form, he began to pace.

Holly forgot about her revulsion for just a moment, her interest piqued, as it always was. She turned to Foaly, and said with total certainty, "He has a plan."

* * *

><p>AN: Made a few edits as of June 2014. I cut some things out and switched around which pieces of dialogue I used, in hopes of making it flow better.

So anyway, thank you so much for the reviews last chapter! (: Please tell me what you think.

Posted 10/4/12, reposted 9/30/14


	6. Unpleasant Memories

Disclaimer: The characters, much of the dialogue, and sadly, even the plot are not mine; they all belong to Eoin Colfer.

Pages: 87 – 103 (with flashbacks to 75 through 83)

Chapter 5: Unpleasant Memories

"_There is a relatively simple solution to our problem."_

Simple. Right. Just like it always was. Honestly, only Artemis Fowl would refer to a strategy involving going back in time to change the past as a 'relatively simple solution.' Yet Artemis was going to get his way, as he always did.

Holly stared out the window of Angeline Fowl's bedroom, out over the extensive grounds of Fowl Manor, the meandering gravel drive surrounded by tall trees and a stone wall beyond, all glowing orange in the fading evening light, as they waited for Nº1's ship to situate itself around back.

She kept her breathing even and steady in the consuming silence.

She had the most peculiar sensation; her thoughts were racing, pressing out against the inside of her skull as though there were too many for her head to contain. Yet at the same time her mind felt empty, as though the incoherency of her thoughts made them have no substance. In the silence, she could not stop the words of the last half-hour replaying themselves in her head, snatches of their conversation. But she was still unable to think, to form proper responses to them.

"_You have already interfered, Holly."_

She could see those cold, angry mismatched eyes staring at her, filled with nothing but hard certainty, of truth.

"_You healed my mother. Healed her and damned her." _The accusations had kept pouring from his mouth like water from a broken dam, unstoppable, tearing through their friendship as quickly and easily as a steel ball through a glass panel, leaving painful cutting shards scattered everywhere in its wake._ "You healed my mother after the siege. __**You**__ must have given her Spelltropy_."

"_But I'm clean," _she had tried to plead, tone defensive despite the sudden plunging sensation in her stomach. _"I was tested."_

"_Then you must be a carrier." _Not a moment of hesitation. A conviction so powerful it could not be refuted.

Back then, she could not think to respond, could not fight. While Foaly had tried unsuccessfully to argue her case, all she could do was stand there in silence. Now that that awful scene was over and it had been decided for certain what they would proceed to do, she found herself falling back into that cold, deadened sense of being.

"_I can't— I just can't— "_

Holly's breathing sped up slightly, but then she controlled it again, not taking her eyes off the window, yet she saw nothing of the enormous grounds of Artemis Fowl's impressive estate.

Even though Artemis had already left the room, having gone down to meet Nº1, the image of him sitting by his mother's bedside holding his mother's wasted hand still burned in her eyes, etched in her mind.

She hadn't intended to tell him about what had happened to her, but it had been out before she could help it. Her mother had died, poisoned by humans. At the time, she had wanted to hunt every last one of them down. She hated them. And that was precisely why she had known, at that moment, that she must understand what he felt better than anyone.

Yet Artemis, vindictive criminal mastermind that he was, had surprised her.

"_I don't hate you. Of course none of this is your fault."_

A much kinder and more understanding response than her own had been. If Holly's magic, back from that time when she had restored Angeline from her growing depression and mental instability, was really the cause of her disease now, of course Holly hadn't done it intentionally. In fact, she'd been trying to help. But then, her mother's death hadn't been intentional either.

Holly slowly pushed herself up from the wall beside the window, eyes still on the sky outside, tinted a savage, burning orange-red by the setting sun.

One thing was clear: Angeline was not dead yet. If she died, there would be no going back. Artemis still held out some hope, and so he was able to be magnanimous for now, but if his mother really died because of her, then—logical or not—that was surely the one thing he would never be able to forgive. But, on the other hand, if Angeline was saved...

Holly stood at the window for a long time, not moving an inch. She had no choice. If there was a way to save Angeline Fowl, she could not let it pass. No matter what they had to risk in the process, she had to go for it.

In a way, she was relieved. The burden of deciding to let Angeline pass on because time was simply too dangerous to be playing games with had been almost too much to bear. She preferred to take action, try to save everyone. That was what she had done at Hybras, and that was what she would do now, and always.

A voice from the nearby monitors brought Holly out of her thoughts.

"We are doing the right thing, I suppose. Letting Artemis go through with this crazy scheme."

Holly turned to look at one of the glowing screens projecting Foaly's face.

"Not much choice, is there," Holly replied brusquely, turning back to the window.

Foaly eyed her, mouth turned down with something like concern.

"We don't know it was you, you know," he said. "I think Artemis jumped the gun a bit on that one. I admitted it was _possible_, but all things considered, it's pretty unlikely. He claims you're the last one to use magic on his mother, but after all these years, he can't know that for certain. And if I'm understanding this right, his mother's brains would be more scrambled than a pan of Mud Man fried eggs if not for you. You don't owe him a thing."

"Does it really matter in the end?" Holly asked. "If we can stop the disease, we have no option but to try. It's like Artemis says: we don't want to go through that horror again. Besides, no offense to your genius-self of course, old friend, but when have your theories ever won out over Artemis's?"

Foaly frowned. "Thanks a lot." He paused, his expression turning a touch more serious. "Look, Holly, I know how you feel. And Artemis is a clever Mud Boy, I'll give him that, and he could have a point. But he's also desperate right now. He would do anything, _say _anything. He wants to save his mother. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but we need to be doing what's best for the People, not just a couple of humans."

Holly stared back at him for a long moment, eyes steely with determination. At last she said evenly, "We have to get the cure for Spelltropy. _That's_ what the People need, Foaly. Artemis's plan is the best chance we've got."

Foaly was quiet for a bit, and he studied Holly's expression carefully. At last he sighed deeply and slumped. "Don't think I don't know that. That's the only reason I'm going along with this insanity right now myself. But don't forget, you were dead right when you said his plans wreak havoc, and this has 'veritable fiasco waiting to happen' written all over it. Remember, the last time you followed one of his plans you left and didn't come back for three years. If things go wrong, this could turn into another Hybras. Let's say Nº1 actually succeeds and sends you back to the past—what if you can't get back? Have you ever thought of that?"

Holly had far from forgotten Hybras and she felt a chill down her spine, but she forced it from her mind. "We'll just have to make sure that doesn't happen," she said, with considerably more confidence than she felt. "Besides, if we hadn't gone with Artemis's plan that time, the demons of Hybras would probably be dead or put on display as spectacles for human entertainment by now."

Foaly didn't have a reply to that, so he said nothing.

Holly turned from the screen. "I think I'm going to go meet up with Artemis and Nº1," she said.

As she started across the room toward the door, for a moment her eyes fell on the bed where Angeline Fowl lay, still gasping desperately for breath as though the room did not contain enough oxygen, her thin, skeletal frame like that of a corpse.

Holly looked quickly away, but the image was still clear in her mind as she stepped out of the room into the hall.

* * *

><p>"You are in luck, Artemis," said Nº1 cheerfully, once they were all assembled in Artemis's study. "I did a module on time travel last week for the warlock diploma course I'm taking."<p>

"Small class, I bet." Now that it seemed certain things were going to go the way Artemis wanted, he seemed more relaxed.

There was some argument over whether Nº1 would accompany them on their journey, Artemis for, Foaly against, until at last Nº1 settled the matter by explaining that, as a matter of necessity, he had to remain behind to act as a beacon to make certain Holly and Artemis returned to the right time and place. Artemis had no choice but to give in.

"How long will it take to weave the spell?" Artemis asked, checking his Rolex watch.

Nº1 considered. "About as long as it takes you two to remove your clothing."

Holly, who had been doing a routine systems check on her Neutrino, stopped what she was doing and looked up. Artemis made some unintelligible noise from the back of his throat and Holly swore.

_I didn't sign up for this,_ she thought.

Clearly on the same wavelength, at the same time Holly slowly circled around to one side, Artemis circled around to the other, preparing for a two-pronged attack.

"Why do we need to take our clothes off?" Artemis said in a low, dangerous voice.

"That is a very good question," said Holly, hands still wrapped around her gun.

Nº1's good humor was unaffected by the imminent danger closing in on him. "It's quite simple," he said happily. "I am not so skilled as Qwan. And even _with _Qwan overseeing the last transfer, you two managed to switch an eye each, which was probably because someone was focusing on stealing magic. If you take clothes or guns in there, they could become a part of you. Lesson number one of time transfers: Keep it simple."

Holly could feel a headache coming on. She couldn't quite look at Artemis. As if going back in time and risking the entire future wasn't anxiety enough.

The room was silent for about ten seconds before at last Nº1 added, throwing them a lifeline, "I suppose you could keep one small garment, but make sure it's your color, because you could be wearing it a really long time."

_Right,_ thought Holly, face aflame as she began tearing off her Shimmer Suit. _Deadly diseases, extinct lemurs, illegal time-hopping, and underwear. This is going to be our most heroic operation yet._

* * *

><p>Holly kept the one-piece, the waterproof, flame-resistant material she wore under her usual LEP-issue Shimmer Suit for extra protection and comfort. She supposed it was more like a swimsuit than real underwear, but it was the principle of the thing.<p>

Holly folded her arms across her chest as Artemis took her suit and gear to lock up for safekeeping. As soon as he left the room, Foaly gave her a look with raised eyebrows, as though to say, _See? I told you what happens when you follow his crazy schemes._ Holly glowered back.

Not a minute later, Artemis was back and he took off his own suit, gingerly placing it in the wardrobe. When he turned back to the group, he was dressed only in a pair of red Armani boxer shorts. Maybe the one-piece wasn't so bad after all.

They stood in the center of the room as Nº1 explained the rules of time travel. He did some calculations and determined they had three days maximum to get back.

It was good to know, though they shouldn't need three days. In and out, zip back to the past, nab the lemur, and come right back. That was the plan.

_Well, _Holly thought with sarcastic cheer, _that'll be one less anxiety. Instead of constantly worrying about missing the deadline, we'll know exactly when we've missed it._

A corona of sparking red magic enveloped Nº1's small frame as he readied himself to perform the transfer. His eyes glowed red, electric jolts of blinding magic sparked from his horns, yet despite his fearsome appearance his voice sounded oddly normal as he instructed, "Now, hold hands."

_We've reached an all new low, _Holly thought as, turning her head away, she reluctantly stuck her hand out and Artemis lightly took it. Here they were, standing in Artemis's personal study in their underwear, holding hands like elementary school children playing some kind of warped game. Maybe she was just giddy, but she couldn't help but remember that old song Mud Men children used to sing, as they held hands and danced around in a circle. _Ring around the rosie, pocket full of posies. Ashes, ashes, we all fall down._

Maybe if they failed to get the lemur, soon everyone would be singing the song.

Holly forced herself to focus. _There's no room for pessimism now, Short. Your mission is to get the lemur, save Artemis's mother and the rest of the People. Artemis, not to mention every fairy in the Lower Elements, is counting on you._

Nº1's magic was amping up and they were nearly ready to go. However, just before the magic flung them into the time stream, Nº1 got an uncharacteristically wicked gleam in his eye.

"I now pronounce you..."

Before Holly could finish mentally forming even one of the string of forthcoming threats, she and Artemis were gone.

* * *

><p>Unlike the last time they had traveled through the stream, which had been an overall pleasant experience, it felt to Holly like the time stream was absorbing their current emotional states and reflecting all the tight worry and distress back at them. The most miserable experiences of the entire world during those intervening years they passed through seemed to hone in on them, attracted by their own personal plight.<p>

Holly's sharp, awful memories of her mother's death, so near the surface ever since she had learned of Artemis's mother's situation, were called savagely to the forefront of her mind. In a moment she felt she would lose herself, that the overwhelming pain of it all would make her spirit disintegrate right here and blow away like dust in the wind.

And what would it matter if she existed or not, she found herself wondering vaguely. So much death in the world, so much suffering, more than she could have ever imagined. Her mother was dead. Her commander was dead. She could not stop the suffering of a single one of these creatures she sensed in the time around her. Holly Short was just the name of a person who had already died once, the world clearly did not need her. What would it matter...

_Focus, Holly,_ came Artemis's voice, cutting through the vague uncertainty of the formless world around them. _Remember who you are and why we are here._

And she did hold onto herself, her will. Barely.

When they finally landed, Holly was for a moment still completely consumed by the emotions of the time tunnel. Still fresh in her mind were the faraway memories of her mother, and tears sprung up in her eyes. For just an instant, she felt completely and utterly alone.

The chiming of a nearby clock roused her, and it didn't take long for everything to come rushing back again. She got up unsteadily, looking around at the strange, yet familiar surroundings of Artemis's study, still a bit disoriented.

The study looked about the same as it would in eight years time, but it seemed more tidy somehow. No, tidy was not the word—it took her a moment to realize that what she was noticing was that, in this time, there was nothing sitting out on the desks. Everything was shut away, the room guarding its secrets more carefully and suspiciously than that of the Artemis of the present. Speaking of Artemis...

She noticed him heading toward the wardrobe, walking a bit jerkily as though his legs, like hers, were not yet ready to fully obey him.

She still didn't feel quite herself after the journey through the stream, but she grinned a bit when she saw him. After they had emerged from the time stream, she had almost forgotten he was there.

"You have really let yourself go," she said, amusement playing on her face as she eyed his now long, scraggly dark hair and his definitely taller, lankier frame. Obviously something had not gone exactly right when they had been rematerialized on this side.

But Artemis did not seem to be listening as he looked impatiently through his clothes, muttering how nothing would fit.

Holly pushed her way past him, for some reason feeling in a much better mood. "Not for me," said said, reaching in and pulling out the smallest outfit she could find—an expensive, crisp black suit, naturally.

"My first suit," Artemis commented, glancing at it. "For the family Christmas postcard. I had no idea really how to wear it..."

Holly listened to his reminiscing as she held the hanger up to her, examining how close the suit's height was to her own as she ripped off the wrapping. "So long as it fits."

Artemis suddenly frowned. "What do you mean, I have let myself go?" he asked. When Artemis saw himself in the mirror, long dark hair falling to his shoulders, sandpaper-like bristles covering his chin, and tall, willowy frame looming a few inches higher than usual, he said calmly, "Ah I see."

"I'm surprised you do," Holly returned smartly. "Through all that hair."

Artemis did not appear to care particularly. "Accelerated aging," he guessed dismissively. "A side effect of the time stream. When we return, the effects should be reversed."

Holly wondered if it would really matter much if Artemis went back to normal or not, though. Certainly it would feel odd to him, suddenly being in a new body, but it appeared to her as though Artemis had grown to the age he was supposed to be had he not missed three years while off saving demons in limbo. If he was stuck like that, he would be the correct age according to his birth certificate, which would be convenient. Although, it might be troublesome to have to come up with some lie for his parents _again _about why he wasn't the age they expected.

Artemis's eyes flickered suddenly, and Holly noticed he was peering at her reflection standing next to his in the door mirror with something like interest, as though seeing her for the first time.

Holly nervously kept the suit held in front of her and hoped this didn't have anything to do with adolescence, though something about the expression on his face, specifically like she was a mildly interesting specimen in a lab experiment, did not seem to jibe with that interpretation.

"Perhaps you should check _yourself_ in the mirror," he observed airily. "I am not the only one to have changed."

When Holly forced him aside so she could get a better look at herself, she fully expected Artemis to chuckle at her for falling for such an obvious trick, but her amusement was quickly extinguished.

"I am young," she said in disbelief. "Younger."

"Don't be upset," said Artemis, as little perturbed by Holly's transformation as his own. "It is temporary. All this is nothing more than dress-up."

But Holly couldn't be as casual and relaxed about it as Artemis. She was exactly as she had been all those years before when her mother had died, and her physical appearance only seemed to bring those memories closer. Back then she had still been in what humans would call their 'teen years.'

An adolescent once again. Just like Artemis.

But there was no time to think about any of that now. They had a mission to complete, and once it was finished they would go back to their own time before she had time to think about how unsettling a thought that was.

Holly put on Artemis's suit. Though Artemis commented that there wasn't really any need to dress, Holly noticed that hadn't stopped him from donning the old tracksuit he had found in a box on top of the wardrobe, which apparently had been worn by one of his parents at some point.

Holly put on the silver wig Artemis had thrown to her to cover her pointed ears and they each slipped on a pair of shoes they had found before the two of them settled in to wait.

The plan was fairly straight-forward. First, they would hole up in the study for a bit. Butler would come and slide the lemur's cage through the doorway without coming in as he and the younger Artemis dealt with a hysterical Angeline Fowl, who was now threatening to call the police on her own son, her mental instability having escalated so that she didn't recognize him. Then they would take the lemur and return to their own time. Simple.

Holly glanced at Artemis standing next to her. This must be a terrible memory to relive, she thought. The moment when, for the first time, his own mother did not know who he was. Artemis had always loved his parents more than anything. Back at the height of his glory as a heartless criminal mastermind, it had been his one redeeming quality.

Luckily, they wouldn't be here for long. They'd get the lemur, and get back to the present.

If only things ever went according to plan.

* * *

><p>AN: For those who don't know already, 'Ring around the Rosie' is a song that has been claimed to have originated during the Middle Ages in reference to the Black Death plague. Supposedly, rosie is a substance carried around to ward off evil, and ashes are supposed to refer to the cremation process of the infected ones' bodies (though there are other known explanations of those two things as well), while the 'falling down' line refers to the victims' inevitable death. Yeah, pretty creepy interpretation to put on a children's song. Though I've also read that all that's just a myth that came about after the song. Then again, Holly's only eighty, so she probably wouldn't know either way. (;

Thank you so much for the reviews last chapter! I'm so grateful for your encouragement. If you like, please leave a comment and tell me what you think. (:

June 2014: I edited over this chapter some, including adding a bit more to that middle scene, since I think it was too clipped before. (I almost ended up cutting out the 'ring and around the rosie' bit for flow purposes, but ultimately I decided to leave it in, since I think maybe that was the most memorable part of this chapter. I got a surprisingly lot of response about it anyway, lol.) There's really nothing new about this scene from the original TTP, which is why I tried to cut it down before, but thinking about it some more, I decided it was significant enough in its own way that it should be in there.

Posted 10/7/12, reposted 9/30/14


	7. Adequate Familiarity

Disclaimer: The characters, much of the dialogue, and sadly, even the plot are not mine; they all belong to Eoin Colfer.

Pages: 103 – 106, 109 – 132, 133 – 134

Chapter 6: Adequate Familiarity

Holly had faced Butler as an enemy only once before. Describing her feelings the second time around would probably have been unnecessary, given that the response to being stared down by a seven-foot-tall Eurasian with the build of Olympic heavyweight champion was most likely universal.

At first the most Holly could do was stare, unable to believe that Artemis's memory could have been flawed and that the Butler of the past had entered the study after all, but she quickly collected herself. That was harder than it sounds, as Butler was now glaring ferociously at the two intruders and giving Holly unpalatable flashbacks to several years ago when she had been held prison in this very manor. Fowl Manor was suddenly a place of danger and hostility once again.

Holly had only one weapon available to her at the moment: the _mesmer_. But her attempt to spellbind the massive bodyguard failed abysmally and rather than fall asleep as she commanded, he managed to plug her with a tranquilizer dart.

All in all, not a surprising development considering their luck so far.

So, for the second in her life, Holly sank to the ground with a drug from Butler's gun coursing through her system. The sedative acted quickly on her small frame and in less than a second, the world had gone black.

* * *

><p>When Holly next became aware, her mind at first remained trapped in the uneasy, shifting reality between sleep and consciousness.<p>

Something was closing in all around her; she thought she might suffocate. The smell of brine filled her lungs with each breath. Cold radiated off the steel inches from her face, pushing in so close that she had to bend her spine and bring up her knees to fit. There was the pressure of a thousand tons of water weighing down on the ceiling she felt against the top of her head.

Her hands were at the controls of the vehicle, exactly where she had been born to have them, but the fairy craft would barely move. This was wrong, this was not how piloting was supposed to be. Flying should mean freedom, openness on every side of her, but this tiny box was no more than a prison. A prison that would be her tomb.

Heart still beating in her ears, Holly slowly opened her eyes only to find herself in absolute darkness. The smell of the ocean was gone, but instinctively she knew that she had not escaped the small, cramped space from the nightmare. Her limbs ached from where they had lashed out uselessly at the walls that caged her, and her rapid breathing seemed unusually loud in the all-consuming silence.

The sensation at first threatened to throw her into a panic. The dreams of being caught in the small submarine cabin deep down below the ocean's surface like her mother still played at the edge of her mind, and she sucked in breath after breath as she tried to get control.

After her mother's death, for a while Holly had been susceptible to claustrophobic attacks. There had been at least one instances in particular she could remember when her mother had been dead for less than a year that, during a lesson when she was still a LEP trainee, when she'd had to crawl through a four-hundred-meter pipe no wider than the width of her shoulders and she had flipped out. Fortunately Holly had managed to get a hold of herself and get through the assignment before they had to come in a cut her out, and after that, over time and with her training she'd managed to pretty much overcome it.

However, it seemed now she was having something of a brief relapse. Perhaps because she had been thinking about her mother so much today.

But as Holly blinked and swallowed, shivering slightly as she curled in on herself, as though by increasing the margin between herself and the walls the space would not be so small, another image of her mother came to Holly's mind.

She could see her mother the way she had looked standing by the LEP submarine doorway, all those times Holly had been allowed to see her go. She would stand looking calm and official, in total command of things. As she glanced back a moment, she often caught sight of Holly's slightly glum expression, and she would suddenly grin, shooting Holly a sassy wink. "Well, I'm off to save the planet from the Mud Men again. Wish me luck, sweetheart."

At the thought, Holly slowly relaxed, allowing herself to stretch out even in the small confines. She felt her usual reserve of mental strength begin to return to her, though a touch of nausea still churned in the base of her stomach, her lungs seeming to unable to take in enough oxygen.

Breathing slowly and deeply, Holly concentrated on running her hands along the hard surfaces on every side of her, finding precisely how close the walls that enclosed her were. She could not feel a surface beneath her feet, but there was a ceiling above, so close that when she touched them her elbows were still at right angles. However, her search yielded one small blessing as her roving hand happened upon a bubble light, and she flicked it on.

When the dim, white light illuminated the small space, the first thing Holly noticed was Artemis next to her, looking even more cramped than she was with his taller-than-usual frame, legs bent in against the wall.

It didn't take much looking around, seeing the downward curve of the ceiling on Artemis's side and the inward-bulging half-cylinder at their feet for her to realize they were laid out sideways inside the trunk of a vehicle.

She swallowed again, her mouth dry. She knew there was no way out from the inside of a trunk, and that alone made the space feel even smaller. But she had mastered the feeling, for now at least.

Holly's eyes went back to Artemis's face, lingering there for just a moment. When caught in a predicament like this, it was good not to be alone.

Holly mused vaguely how distant the missed three years seemed at the moment. Here, back in real action on another mission with Artemis Fowl, the dimly unsettled sensation, the humiliating feeling of a kind of loneliness of the past couple weeks seemed so far away as to be unimportant, separated from her by eight years. Instead she felt the old ghost of exhilaration revive in the back of her head, a weight of responsibility fall on her shoulders that made her shiver with nerves and stimulated her like a cup of sim double espresso.

Holly could have almost laughed at herself. Here they were, trapped by dangerous hostiles in a trunk with no obvious means of escape, in the most unfamiliar place imaginable, and yet she felt relieved. It was like she had just come home after spending the afternoon in a place she didn't know, surrounded by strangers. She felt better than she had in her own home in Haven for weeks. Here was where the excitement always was. Here was where she was vitally needed again.

The light had apparently disturbed Artemis because he stirred and groaned, then opened his eyes. "Sell the Phonetics shares," he muttered, dishing out orders even half-asleep.

Holly could have rolled her eyes. Of course, while she was having a nightmare about being imprisoned in an airless submarine, it was just typical Artemis Fowl would be dreaming about losing money in the stock market. She wouldn't be surprised if that one made him wake up screaming sometimes.

Artemis seemed to come to his senses then because he said suddenly, "Holly. Holly?"

Still feeling the flood of warmth for her human friend, she patted his leg to reassure him and said, speaking in Gnommish just to be on the safe side in case the trunk was wired, "It's okay, Artemis. I'm here. Where else could I be?"

It was at this precise moment that a strange thing occurred to Holly as she laid next to Artemis in the vehicle, especially considering they were basically in the middle of a crisis. The space suddenly felt even tighter, hot and cramped, despite the fact that there were controls keeping the air a reasonable temperature, and despite the fact that it was the middle of the night without the slightest bit of heat from the sun.

She felt strangely... nervous. Like all her senses were warning her there was danger of some kind, but she hadn't yet consciously worked out what it was. It certainly wasn't little Artemis or Butler she knew, though it would have made sense.

Less than a second had passed before she suddenly froze. Her eyes were still on Artemis as it slowly dawned on her what her instincts were telling her the problem was.

A sort of heat was spreading through her face, as she resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Please, no. It was so ridiculous. This particular thought could not be crossing her mind at this particular time.

Whatever this situation was, she told herself firmly, it certainly wasn't worse than being forced to hold hands in their underwear as Nº1 had forced them to do. What in the world was the matter with her? Professionals didn't stop to get embarrassed by what positions they were thrown into; they were far too busy staying alive. Being trapped and alone with a member of the opposite sex in the trunk of a vehicle was not enough to drive up a professional's blood pressure, and it certainly wasn't enough to suddenly give them to urge to press themselves against the far side of the trunk, as far from said member of opposite sex as they could get. Professionals didn't act like diffident hormonal adolescents.

Except maybe she wasn't a professional anymore. Maybe she really was just a kid teenager again, as the humans said, and the physical hormonal reaction was affecting her thoughts.

Holly thought about that. A physical, hormonal reaction to _Artemis Fowl_.

_Okay, that does it,_ Holly thought, half-horrified, half-irritated. She seriously needed to get back to her own time and back into her adult body. Hopefully Artemis had been right about the changes being temporary.

...Which wasn't much consolation, considering the fact they were in this situation in the first place because Artemis had been mistaken already. The most nettlesome thing about the whole thing was that, considering it was Artemis, there wasn't even actually anything to worry about, hence the stress which she was fairly sure was taking minutes off the end of her life was a waste of energy. He was only interested in other genius criminal masterminds, and even then those would play second fiddle to a mountain of gold bars any day.

But one thing Holly knew for certain: if Artemis ever somehow guessed her current thoughts and sudden embarrassment, he would probably never let her hear the end of it.

Holly slowly withdrew her hand.

Artemis, the actual hormonal teenager in the equation, turned onto his side to face her and immediately went into business mode, taking note of the fact Holly had awoken first despite weighing less than he did and assessing their current strategic position, attempting to identify possible means of escape. The Mud Boy at least was apparently unperturbed by this position.

It was unsurprising, seeing as how they had more important things to worry about at the moment. Still, it was at times likes this she found Artemis's detached calm and practical disposition a little on the annoying side.

* * *

><p>However, in the end, discussing their options and answering Artemis's questions turned out to be just what Holly needed to drag her back into her normal, less moronic – er, distracted – frame of mind, concentration shifting to their quandary. After all, there was no time for patent idiocy.<p>

Holly found that she could actually hear beyond the metal walls of the trunk if she placed her ear right up against its surface and concentrated, and when she informed Artemis of the vague muttering of animals she heard, he realized that they were at Rathdown Park, the place from which he had retrieved the lemur all those years ago. Or, more accurately, was about to retrieve it right now.

Artemis, who had already seemed confused by what had happened, how they had been taken so off-guard, seemed yet even more confounded by this development. Which was in and of itself disconcerting.

For some reason, things were happening differently from everything he remembered, and if even Artemis didn't know what he was doing, or even able to _pretend_ he knew what he was doing, that was a sure sign to Holly that they were in a little too deep. They had already gone outside the parameters they had set for themselves for this mission by being seen and taken captive, and now they were a long way away from the take-off point. Who knew what could happen to the future if they continued to interfere.

Holly's eyes focused on the boy's face for a moment, his skin looking even paler in the cool, feeble lighting. One thing Artemis's various associates learned in getting to know the boy was that he was pragmatic and calculating by nature, always. Artemis Fowl would pinpoint the most intelligent path and then follow it to the letter, even if his every emotion and instinct went against it. But those who _really_ knew him knew that all that was true only most of the time. Because for Artemis, it was a different matter when it came to his parents.

Holly found herself thinking back to the mission in the Arctic, when Artemis had agreed to help the fairies deal with the Goblin rebellion in exchange for aid in rescuing his father. He had so wanted to push through to save Artemis Fowl the First anyway, even when it was no longer even a rational course of action. That time, Butler had had to step in to tell Artemis what needed to be said, that they had no choice but to turn back and regroup, to essentially give up for the moment.

Now, in this time and place, Butler wasn't here. So that meant it looked like it was going to fall to her to say it this time.

"_I'm off to save the world again. Wish me luck."_

Holly's stomach twisted. She herself had already suffered the absolute pain and despair of watching her own mother die, helpless to do anything to stop it. And that memory made the weight of this responsibility all the heavier.

However, Holly told him plainly, "We are not in control of this situation anymore, Artemis. Perhaps it's time to admit defeat and return home, when your younger self brings us back to the manor." After all, they didn't want to press their luck and wind up stuck in the past, or it really would be Hybras all over again. She added as an afterthought, "_Perhaps_ you can discover a cure in the future."

As unlikely as this seemed, especially in time to do Angeline Fowl any good, Holly knew if anyone could do it, it was probably Artemis.

Her sympathy for him flickered though as the teen, rather than getting riled up as he had earlier, angry or desperate, he simply answered smoothly, ever the patronizing analyst, "I considered that. The lemur is still our best option, and we are just a few feet away from it." He even had the nerve to tack on a 'Give me five minutes' at the end.

There were times when Artemis's calm resolve and confidence were reassuring, inspiring even. The other ninety percent of the time, it just grated on her nerves.

* * *

><p>Holly shouldn't have been surprised, really. After all, Artemis's genius had often seemed to be a kind of magic all on its own. Artemis's expression was so smug she had to resist the urge to reach over and hit him, though inwardly she had to be desperately glad to escape the little metal box that reminded her so much of her mother's untimely end.<p>

As a result of Artemis's trifling, they seemed to have gained an unlikely ally in their old friend Mulch Diggums, who was not yet their friend in this time. Despite how secure the lock on the trunk supposedly was, the kleptomaniac dwarf had no trouble freeing them from their prison, though he only seemed interested in the 'stupendous amount of gold' promised him in the note Artemis had somehow contrived to have sent back in time to him.

With the assistance of the talented, albeit unpleasant-smelling dwarf, their prospects improved considerably. Stealing some of the equipment from his younger self's vehicle, Artemis quickly formed a plan to get to the lemur before the younger Artemis, and they all split up to go into action.

It was quite a stroke of luck to get Mulch to agree to cooperate, and even better, it felt good to have regained her mother's old familiar omnitool from Mulch's stash of stolen equipment.

Holly felt a little bad for having flown off the handle as she had when she had discovered it among the dwarf's other stolen valuables; it was unlike her to lose control like that. Certainly, it had been a treasured gift from her mother she had especially cherished after her mother was gone, and having it stolen had resulted in one of the biggest botched-up missions of her career, and... Well, okay, maybe he did deserve it.

Still, she wouldn't ordinarily just explode as she had. Perhaps she was just imagining it, but she thought she really did feel a little less stable than usual. She hadn't been so moody in years, but perhaps the fear of Spelltropy and the guilt of what she may have done to Artemis's mother were having a negative effect on her military discipline she had developed through her training with the LEP.

However, another yet still more troubling possibility occurred to her.

At the LEP, Holly was well known for her self-confidence that often bordered on cockiness. She was a good officer, and she never wasted time pretending not to know it. Whatever disastrous situation she found herself in during an operation, she had always proven able to react instantly, intuitively able to make the most intelligent response available: a quality had often given her just the edge she needed to escape, or apprehend a suspect, or make a critical move that saved lives. To make those snap life-or-death decisions she had often had to make, one learned quickly there was simply no time to second-guess decisions or go back to check the guidebook, and so there was only one's instincts to rely on, and it took a serious amount of guts and mental toughness to pull it off. Even Commander Julius Root had had to grudgingly admit on rare occasions that his only female officer 'showed promise.' She had a natural talent, and that, combined with the two decades of experience she had under her belt, gave her even more assurance, and enhanced her ability to act correctly during an emergency.

But right now, all of those accomplishments and talents seemed very remote, hollow even. It was not the memories that had changed, but her emotions. She did not _feel_ strong or experienced. All her confidence in what she had learned and done had slipped away somewhere and she couldn't seem to grab hold of it again.

It was just possible that more than her body had changed in the trip through the time stream. After all, she had not always been the dauntless officer she had grown to be as an adult after she had gritted her teeth and endured the LEP training. Before that she had been soft, untested. A child who was still living under the roof of a parent, sheltered from a hostile outside world, who hadn't yet had to fight and work incessantly to harden herself to get through hardship after hardship alone.

But whatever the cause, all Holly could say was that almost the very moment her two friends were no longer in sight she felt an unusually tense nervousness seize hold of her stomach. Even though she had been on the verge of entering situations many times more dangerous than this on countless occasions, an irrepressible apprehension like she hadn't felt in a long time came over her. Instead of pinpointing what she needed to do to make sure things worked, all she could think about was how the possibilities for the ways things could go wrong seemed endless, and even worse, for the first time she wasn't sure she would be able to think on her feet should something unexpected arise.

She found herself thinking about her human friend again. Ordinarily he would be hanging back somewhere while she or Butler were at the front lines, all guns blazing, while he obnoxiously threw out bits of advice from the background, making sure all his pieces were correctly arranged on the board. But this time it was just the two of them plus a reluctant Mulch, and now he was the one heading directly into the line of fire.

At the thought, Holly felt a flicker of foreboding.

_But surely, little Artemis and Butler wouldn't actually kill him, even if he got in their way,_ she told herself.

However, Holly's mind drifted back to the first time she had met Artemis Fowl, the way he'd kept her trapped in his manor by force, playing mind games with her to make her a more docile prisoner. Those cold blue eyes, willing to risk so much, even his own life and those of his subordinates for the sake of victory.

Despite the balmy summer night air, a cold shiver sent a slight tremor down Holly's spine.

Well, that's why I'm here, she reasoned. Her role was to keep a lookout and prevent those two from hurting the Artemis from the future while he focused on getting the lemur.

A basically unarmed adolescent girl alone against giant, troll-taming Butler and criminal-mastermind-slash-tactical-genius Artemis Fowl. No problem. She could could handle it.

Right.

* * *

><p>By the time Holly reached the lemur's cage and found a spot she determined as good as any to watch for their adversaries, her paranoia had gone up several notches and she was more eager than ever to be past this stage of the mission and headed back to the manor as soon as possible.<p>

She was now certain having the form of an adolescent may pose more a problem than she had originally thought. She wouldn't feel perfectly easy again until they were back safely in their own time, and she was out of this kid's body.

The moment she'd acquainted herself a bit with the place behind one of the larger tree trunks in the lemur's habitat she'd chosen, she settled back into visibility and contacted Artemis through the primitive communicator in her ear, which they'd appropriated from Mulch's collection of stolen fairy technology.

Despite her tension, she was determined to sound as calm and professional as possible, even though she knew the subtle inflections in her voice would not carry over the old communicator as it only conveyed words, not voice patterns. One never could tell with Artemis what he would be able to discern and what he wouldn't, and she didn't want him to think her as unreliable as she was feeling at the moment.

"In position. Over."

"Received," came back Artemis's monotone voice, sounding like a talking computer program. It wasn't so different from his usual voice. "We are directly below the target's cage. Can you see the opposition?"

"Negative. No visual," she said, thinking maybe she was overdoing it on the 'professional' thing. She communicated like this all the time as a member of the LEP back in her own time, but for some reason right now she felt almost silly, like a kid playing spy. Maybe she should tone it down a bit. Strange, had she really been this self-conscious as an adolescent?

"But I do see the lemur," she added. "He seems to be asleep on a low branch. I can easily reach him." Then they could all get out of here and her friends would finally be out of danger.

"Negative, Holly. Hold your position," answered Artemis, still speaking in the emotionless voice of the communicator. "We will secure the target. You watch for my younger self."

"Understood," said Holly with a mental sigh. She could not suppress the anxious, almost urgent note in her voice this time as she continued, "Don't hang around, Arty. Get up, get down, and back to the car."

"Got it. Up, down, and back," responded Artemis, not commenting on Holly's use of the informal nickname. If it had offended him, she was fairly sure she would have heard about it, so she assumed that must mean he found it permissible. Or perhaps he was too focused on the task at hand at the moment and he would pass a snide remark about it later.

_Arty_. She liked that, she decided. After all these years and all they had been through, she felt like she'd earned the right to call him that. It was what she had heard his father had call him before. Though it felt strange coming out of her own mouth, it was also a bit exciting – it made him sound so much less threatening, and like perhaps they were finally getting to be closer friends. However, the real thrill came from her fervent hope that it might annoy him.

She tried not to grin as she imagined Artemis, ever the walking encyclopedia, observing offhandedly later, _"You know, nicknames can serve to further the perception of __comradeship or affection. Conversely, a nickname can also serve to insult or alienate the other individual, if the name was not welcome, or said without adequate familiarity." _And of course, he would say it with a slightly condescending air that made the implication clear. Trading implied derogatory comments was one of their favorite pastimes after all.

As Holly surveyed the shadowy jungle habitat of the silky sifaka cage from her hiding place, she allowed herself a glimmer of hope for the first time.

Little Artemis wouldn't be expecting anyone to come up from the ground. No matter how smart he was, he wouldn't know about dwarf talents, and that gave the older Artemis the advantage. Maybe Artemis and Mulch would be able to grab the lemur and get back safely underground before little Artemis or Butler had time to react. Maybe everything would go according to plan after all, for once.

And that was when Mulch erupted out of the ground into the wrong cage – a cage that just happened to belong to a dangerous, gigantic mountain gorilla.

The gorilla was instantly awake and on its feet at the deafening noise. But Artemis, apparently unaware of the danger, promptly climbed right out of the hole, awkward as ever in any kind of physical exertion.

Attempts at stealth and the enemies she was supposed to look for forgotten, Holly shouted into the communicator for Artemis to get Mulch, who'd been injured by the metal bars that ran along the top of the cage when he'd come rocketing out the grassy undergrowth, and to get back down.

Artemis didn't even have a chance to look startled at the message as the gorilla charged, and Holly ran for the cage for all she was worth.

* * *

><p>AN: ...Yeah. And this has suddenly turned into a romantic comedy. (lol, not really) Sorry, I really wanted to write the scene near the beginning like that. Partially just because, but also because I thought it would be appropriate to include as a kind of additional foreshadowing to what happens later, besides what's already in the book. (; Because the characters' thoughts aren't really divulged after the submarine-nightmare thing in that scene, I actually thought it was reasonably believable to think either one of them would be sort of uncomfortable, or thinking things we aren't aware of. (Well, I guess that's what this whole fic is about.)

Uh, but if you don't care for that sort of thing, please just ignore it. But secretly, you're all probably desperate for romance by this point, right? (;

So... next chapter is 'that scene' that you've all no doubt been waiting for. Uh, well, a bit of forewarning, you might find my version sort of understated though. Mainly because it was so perfect in the original that I don't want to compete with it. (; But as with everything else so far, my goal will be to keep the important parts there, but written in a new way that focuses on different things though is still consistent with the original.

So anyway, thank you so much for the reviews last chapter! Anyone who's enjoyed this so far, I hope you'll leave a review and tell me what you think. (:

Posted 10/11/11


	8. Reborn

Disclaimer: The characters, much of the dialogue, and sadly, even the plot are not mine; they all belong to Eoin Colfer.

Pages: 135 – 138, 142 – 145, 167 – 169

Chapter 7: Reborn

Looking back, Holly still wasn't quite sure what had caused her to do it. But then, she couldn't deny she had always been cursed to be something of a being of impulse, even as an adult.

At the moment as she stood inside the cage, staring at the horrible scene before her, so many emotions were playing through her. But it was fear that she felt most tangibly in her chest. Fear submerged and drowned all the other feelings, and as her eyes fell on her gravely injured friend clutched in the arms of the gorilla, the powerful presence and thick muscled body, like a delicate glass sculpture in the hands of a troll, she felt like falling to her knees and crying, or getting as far away as she could. It could not be happening.

She watched her friend's blood trickle down his temple and seep into his jacket from the vicious break in his arm, consumed by an overriding feeling of helplessness, but then the steel buried beneath her soft exterior snapped into place, and she rushed forward, using her gift of tongues to speak to the animal and chasing it off with the _mesmer_.

The next thing she knew she was kneeling beside her friend, sparks of magic dancing around her fingers. But then she froze, as though struck with a bolt of lightening. Her magic was not safe. If, as Artemis seemed to think, she had given Angeline Spelltropy, then if she healed her friend, she may condemn the boy to the worst end imaginable.

Holly gazed down at her friend. He twisted limply with pain, his blood soaking the thick grass of the dark jungle habitat around him and his irises had rolled back so far only the whites of his eyes were visible beneath his sinking eyelids. There could be worse injuries still beneath the surface. The wounds from the attack were likely fatal, and even if they weren't there was no way she would be able to move him like this. Even if it was dirty, disease-ridden, her magic was his only hope of survival.

A darkness seemed to hang over her as Holly made her decision. At last she allowed the twisting, hissing sparks, snapping like the mouths of tiny rabid canines, to engulf her friend. When her work was done, she sat back, tears of painful desperation streaking down her face as she waited to see if the healing had worked. If she hadn't been too late.

The few seconds of dead silence seemed to last an age. A thousand thoughts were flying through her mind, and a terror of that piercing emptiness she still remembered so vividly from back right after Commander Root had been murdered, when she had believed Artemis and Butler also dead, coursed through her.

But then, finally, his eyes fluttered, and opened. His body spasmed as he coughed and trembled before he sank back into the grass, his tall form relaxed once more. He turned his head slightly to stare up at her, with a face that was strangely gentle, a rare moment of completely open emotion that the trance brought on by the magic made it impossible for him to conceal. "Holly. You saved me again," he said, smiling.

He was alive. The typical deceit and crookedness of his features was for once completely absent, replaced by what could only be described as sincere appreciation. It all seemed to swim together, making the relief that flooded through her that much more overpowering, intoxicating.

Almost delirious with emotion, tears continuing to flow in tiny streams over her cheeks and dripping down onto Artemis's tracksuit, Holly said, joking, but also in that moment completely serious, "Of course I saved you. I couldn't do without you."

Perhaps Artemis was still in a daze from the post-healing, because he did not react when Holly, magic still pumping through her and completely without thinking, leaned down and pressed her lips to his, and he did not seem fully aware when she pulled back again. The ribbons of mist-like sparks of magic floating all around them slowly disintegrated into the night air.

Now, no one would probably ever describe Artemis as 'graceful,' but, so long as he wasn't climbing out of a dwarf hole or trying to jump onto a moving train, his movements generally did have a certain sophistication, almost elegance about them.

So it was a bit out of the ordinary for him when, as soon as the magic was gone, he leaped to his feet so fast that he very nearly lost his balance and toppled over again.

"Eh, thanks," he said once he'd steadied himself, his speech unusually stilted and awkward. "That was unexpected."

Holly was smiling, a bit embarrassed, but the feeling overshadowed by a sort of exhilarated buzz of relief. He was alive.

"Artemis," she said. "You're okay. Any more healings and you'll be nothing but scar tissue held together by magic thread."

Artemis looked a bit disoriented for a moment, like a person just woken up from an incredibly strange dream. Finally he said slowly, "Very well. I see where we are..."

It took him less than ten seconds to compose himself and turn back to the task at hand, namely stopping his younger self from getting the lemur, which at the moment Holly had all but forgotten.

Ten seconds – now that was quite a lapse for Artemis.

* * *

><p>So they moved into action. To stop the younger Artemis from getting his hands on the lemur, Holly used her gift of tongues to stir up the animals in the park, just as they had planned earlier even before things had gone so disastrously wrong. It was enough to scare off the silky sifika from the diminutive monster of a boy just in time, though the distraction didn't last long as Butler unloaded another hypodermic dart into her, and Holly barely had time to register what had happened before the world tilted before her and she was out like a light yet again.<p>

Holly could not say the exact moment when she awoke. Even with her eyes closed, it felt for a long time like everything was spinning dizzily around her, and even when she opened her eyes the real world was little more than a sea of blended pulsing color and darkness. Whenever she tried to move, her arms and legs felt as heavy as bars of lead.

Her brain, too, felt fogged and sluggish. She could not think clearly, a jumble of memories and images from the last twenty minutes or so flickering through her head, some repeating themselves again and again, as though she couldn't quite get a grasp on their meaning yet and this would help her understand them better.

The continued thoughts about her mother and how she had died were there, the vaguest sense of loss and regret woven inseparably with them. Holly also recalled the feelings of loneliness and something like abandonment after the Hybras landing.

Though she tried to fight against these thoughts, to drag her eyes open again, she could not seem to pull away, as though her mind itself were an enormous weight that could not be easily moved.

But for the most part, these visions, which hung teetering somewhere between pure illusory dreams and a reality she knew and could understand, continued to draw her thoughts toward a certain Mud Boy.

He was somewhere. She needed to find him so they could continue... continue something. But the most her semiconscious brain could supply her with at the moment was a series of disjointed images.

A picture of a giant gorilla lunging at the intruder into its territory, and of the tall human laying spread out on the ground, his eyes almost closed as though on the verge of death, flitted before her eyes. She saw a rocky barren land, and she stared at a boy as he turned away from her. She could hear a voice in her ear, sobbing, as she stood on a sheet of ice leaning over a tall man with dark hair and a missing leg. The next moment the young human boy was sitting in front of her, murmuring how he would keep his memories because he had outwitted the fairies, as she placed a mask over his eyes.

All of it was at once both so strange and so familiar that she could not be sure what was happening right now before her, what was memory, and what was only an imaginary, transitory dream.

The images flickered back to the cage and the gorilla, the thoughts more urgent now. She saw over and over the tall teenager dangling like a broken rag doll in the giant beast's clutches, blood soaking the sleeve of the human boy's tracksuit, dripping both from his closed left eye and mouth, that same pale youth smiling up at her with mismatched eyes full of gratitude...

* * *

><p>It felt like a long time before she could register anything much outside the vertigo and swirl of random thoughts, but even then, her surroundings still felt somehow distant and dim. Even with the voices she heard, her clouded brain did not fully grasp any meaning at first.<p>

"...buried the captain," a deep guttural voice was saying. "She was moaning quite loudly. _Arty_ this and _Arty_ that, with a few _Mothers_ thrown in."

Had Holly been in her right mind, she probably would have been rather irritated with the dwarf for sharing this bit of information.

She heard the guttural voice still speaking and felt something like a coat of a powdery substance fall on her. Her senses were unable to place what the substance was exactly without further sensory stimuli, and so images of an endless white snowfield and snowflakes drifting softly down, and laying in the sun on a sandy beach flickered dully in the back of her mind.

She vaguely felt a pair of hands on her shoulders, shaking her softly, and the sound of someone speaking drifted down to her, as though from a long distance away. Not the dwarf voice like gravel of before, but a human voice, almost gentle, with a tone of something like concern. A familiar voice.

"Holly, can you hear me?"

The words strangely invigorated her, and she finally had the strength to force her eyes open, despite the weight of her eyelids, which at the moment felt like iron casings. For a moment, everything was blurred and out of focus, and she couldn't make sense of her surroundings.

Then the image cleared and the dark shape she saw leaning over her resolved itself into the face of a teenage human boy with long dark hair and a pale complexion. There was the same concern she'd detected in his voice in his face, though as with all Artemis's expressions of emotion, it would have appeared understated and mild on anyone else.

Seeing him calmed her somewhat, soothing the indistinct feelings of anxiety that had been consuming her subconscious while she'd been out of it.

"Artemis," she began, feeling more awake but still slightly disoriented. "I..."

For whatever reason, whether the drug finished wearing off or at that moment she just happened to finally come to her senses, Holly's brain suddenly snapped back into full awareness and the flood of the most recent memories her subconscious had been mulling over in the form of fragmented snapshots were suddenly returned to her, this time in more perspective. She felt a massive headache coming on.

Now, Holly had never been drunk before. In fact, she had never even tasted alcohol as the stuff tended to poison fairy magic, at least when it came from the Mud People, which statistics stated that ninety percent of it did. However, she imagined now that a night of revelry and getting completely plastered only to wake up the next morning to a terrific hangover had to feel something like this.

Not because of the drug in Butler's dart. No, more accurately, this was like waking up to a hangover after a night of partying and realizing that you had done something incredibly stupid while you were drunk. Something stupid like, say, _kissing_ someone who was until just a few years ago your sworn enemy.

"Oh gods," she muttered. She anticipated her headache would not be going away any time soon.

"It's okay," Artemis reassured her in a brisk, official tone that did not seem quite appropriate given the circumstances. This was soon explained as he continued, "I don't have the lemur..." He corrected himself. "Well, actually, I do. The other me, but don't worry, I know where I'm going." That was Artemis, mind always on the mission.

"I mean, _Oh gods, I think I kissed you_," she clarified in a grim tone, pulling at her cheeks with her fingers and pushing so hard she left momentary indents in the skin.

Artemis said nothing in reply, but she did seem to have his complete attention now. He shifted slightly so that his eyes locked with hers.

From the first time they had met, Holly had been struck by how piercing Artemis Fowl's gaze was, and now she found she could not look away. He stared with eyes half obscured by sheaves of long black hair, looking as though he could stare right through her.

_He can tell_, she thought, a little desperately. _He can tell what I'm thinking, right at this moment._

The same could not be said for her and Artemis's thoughts. As she stared back into his eyes, for a moment almost transfixed by them, she saw a face unreadable as always. Her magic was so depleted not even her fairy empathy could help her. However, she could still feel enough to sense that he was not hostile. Perhaps even... open?

Another thought rose unbidden in her mind. _Perhaps he is contemplating how he can use this to his advantage in the future._

But the moment the thought came, she was immediately disgusted with herself. How could she think that about her own friend? Artemis was a changed individual, he showed it more all the time.

And so, Holly didn't look away, and found she couldn't look away, didn't want to. It was so warm and comfortable here, like this.

_We've come through so many things together_, she thought, dazed, seeing his hazel eye and the ghost trail of dried blood running from the corner. _Would it be so wrong...?_

A sharp voice in the back of her mind, her calm, professional side, cut in vehemently, _Wrong? Of course it's wrong, for about a million reasons. Even if he wasn't a human, think of everything he's done. To you, to the People. He always has an ulterior motive for all he does. You can never take any part of him at face value._

_He's changed_, Holly answered vaguely, thoughts clouded and muddled as her senses were for a moment overpowered by the memory of the taste of blood mixed with salty tears on her lips...

_You're not thinking_, said the voice, but now as though from a distance, as it was slowly drowned out by the strength of the emotions churning inside her. It continued to whisper, _You may look like an adolescent, but you're not. You're LEP, you're a professional._

The voice was reasonable, sensible. Cautious, focused, as one should be as an LEP captain. But she found she was having trouble concentrating on the voice. She could not bring herself to pay attention to it, in this moment.

Before it faded entirely, the voice had one last reminder, one last piece of advice, the words as soft as a breath of wind. _You know you can't trust him._

But Holly was beyond listening to her own advice, even if she had believed it. It was good to be cynical at times, but surely that didn't apply to one's friends.

Holly wouldn't have minded if the moment had continued to go on. She wouldn't have minded continuing to bask indefinitely in the warmth of those threads of emotion she felt with her muted fairy empathy, this connection between them.

But then Artemis suddenly blinked and looked away, breaking the moment. She felt immediately a distance building itself up between them again. Artemis was upset, troubled – or so the vague sense she got from her magical empathy told her so.

A little let down, she looked away as well. Perhaps in having this expression on her face she had crossed some line. Perhaps it bothered him that she was evidently so distracted while his mother lay gravely ill in her bed back in their own time.

Holly felt a block of ice drop into her stomach as another thought struck her.

_Or perhaps he remembered who it was who may end up being responsible for his mother's death._

He had told her it wasn't her fault, that he didn't hate her. And maybe he really felt that way. But still, the simple fact couldn't _not_ bother him. It would always be lurking in the back of his mind, a wrenching truth that may never go away. If Angeline passed on, would he forever associate Holly with that pain, the way she associated those contemptible Mud Men that she still despised to this very day with the loss of her own mother?

Holly's head spun, she felt suddenly sick. But then, to her surprise, a hand lightly touched her elbow and she felt Artemis at her side, gently helping her to her feet.

The close proximity slightly heightened her magical empathy and she felt again his underlying tension and anxiety. However, she sensed vaguely mixed in with those a sort of tenderness as well. Whether it was a feeling like she was feeling right now, or that he felt sorry for her, she couldn't say. But it wasn't complete animosity at least. Perhaps not even Artemis knew what to feel.

And, as quickly as the despair had set in, it receded. In its place, renewed vigor flowed through her, along with a new determination that chased away the rest of her doubt.

She had been waffling up to now, uncertain of how wise attempting this mission was, uncertain if success was even possible. But there was no backing out now. If they didn't get the lemur, Angeline and possibly many others would die, and Holly may have been the root cause. And now Artemis may die as well, thanks to her healing.

But that wouldn't happen. Not if Holly had anything to say about it. She would do everything she could to give this mission every chance of success, and she could already feel forming in her mind the beginnings of a plan.

"Reborn," said Holly, as she stepped out of the grave Mulch had made for her. She doubted even Artemis could know just how appropriate that word was.

* * *

><p>AN: I wouldn't consider romance my strong suit, but... it certainly is fun to write. (; (If sort of taxing, lol.)

(Sorry for the long author's note, feel free to skip it if you like. X3)

Ah, so many things I'm questioning about how this chapter came out now... I'm still wondering even now whether I should have opted to include a little more of the cage scene from the book. The dramatic buildup in the original scene was just so epic (or so I thought), I didn't know what I could do with it besides just copy and paste it into here, and for obvious reasons I didn't want to do that, lol. I keep feeling like it came across sort of clipped here and not quite adequate though, so I kept trying to add more to it to better transition from the last chapter... Sigh, oh well.

Also, some of you may be questioning the 'sudden' transition from 'Ew, gross' mentality of Holly's to something, uh, totally different, lol. I guess that's also been a criticism of the original TTP that I've heard from time to time. Hmm, well, to explain it properly would probably end up going into something long and convoluted, not to mention lame to talk about at this point when there's still a lot left to the story, heh. So, suffice it to say, I wanted to keep the abruptness of the original TTP because it seemed like to me that it was indeed meant to be sudden, in a way.

That is, feelings about something may build up in a person over time, but the realization or actual expression of those feelings may happen abruptly (in books, usually it's triggered by some particular event). Resentment, infatuation, pain, etc. are things I think that can be sort of subconsciously suppressed, and so the character may not even be aware of them until something happens to force them to acknowledge them. But even then, the character themselves may not be able to immediately pinpoint absolutely the cause of their acting the way they are. So I have to admit, for a variety of reasons I found the way things happened in TTP perfectly reasonable and believable. Though that's just my opinion. (;

Heh, a lot of you may be thinking that that much was sort of obvious... But I always feel the need to explain these things. (; I'll try hard to hold back most of the time though, since I think I'll just give too much away if I explain too much, and the plot of this fanfic's predictable enough as it, lol.

But anyway, thank you so, so much for all the reviews last chapter! I really appreciate all the responses, I'm glad there are some people who've been able to enjoy this so far. For anyone who's reading this, hope to hear from you too! (:

Posted 10/15/11


	9. Moonlight Whispers

Disclaimer: The characters, much of the dialogue, and sadly, even the plot are not mine; they all belong to Eoin Colfer.

Pages: 169 – 171, 176

Chapter 8: Moonlight Whispers

Holly made sure to sock Mulch one for that horrendously embarrassing and, in her opinion, highly unnecessary 'Arty this, Arty that' comment from earlier; although, she supposed her very valid excuse of annoyance over the dwarf's choice to bury her alive to shut her up when there had to have been countless other less uncomfortable ways to accomplish the same goal would have been reason enough as well. Once that was out of the way, she told them her idea.

The moment they heard what she was thinking, a slow grin spread across Mulch's face, his eyes shining with greed. Artemis, though his face didn't betray any special enthusiasm, was nevertheless probably relieved to be free of the task of negotiating the terms of the payment in exchange for the dwarf's continued assistance: Mulch had been showing every sign of bailing on them early while he still could, but this new incentive of Holly's appeared to have revived his interest in the strange pairs' exploits.

In an unusual bout of adolescent immaturity, she and Artemis argued for a bit over who would shake Mulch's spit-sodden hand to make the agreement official. Holly was happy to say that Artemis lost.

She did wonder for a moment though if she had gone too far, pointing out that it was his mother they were here to save, but Artemis did not seem to resent it. In fact, his only response was to give a slight, almost sheepish smile – like a parent with an assortment of bad habits, who inevitably had those same habits turned against him by his own precocious child.

He said as he turned to Mulch, reluctantly offering his delicate hand for the unpleasant business, "You, Captain Short, are getting as bad as me."

* * *

><p>And so, they were going to Tara.<p>

Now that Holly was going all out on this changing-the-past business, hang the consequences, it had occurred to her that having access to fairy technology might give them an edge over little Artemis. And since she had access to all the fairy equipment at all the various fairy surface sites because of her status as an LEP officer, albeit an LEP officer from almost eight years into the future, they could get a hold of some with relative ease.

The technology also of course came in handy in satisfying Mulch enough to continue to work with them, which was almost as important. After all, when it came to stealing things and breaking into secure facilities, Mulch Diggums was indispensable, not that she would ever tell him so.

Artemis immediately pointed out that they would need a means to get to Tara, and suggested that they 'secure a vehicle from the residential sector' for the trip. In laymen's terms, they needed to steal a car.

Mulch had no problem with the plan of course, but Artemis seemed a bit taken aback when Holly raised no objection either. First the Tara shuttleport equipment, now this, or so she imagined he was thinking. She even volunteered to be the one to retrieve the keys from the house of the car they selected, a moderately worn Mini Cooper, leaving Artemis to merely raise an eyebrow slightly at her enthusiasm.

Mulch's response wasn't quite so polite. Rolling his eyes at this last suggestion, the career criminal just said in a very patronizing tone, "Uh, no offense, _Officer_, but why don't you leave this sort of work to the professionals, eh?"

Holly's scowl didn't appear to faze the dwarf in the least as he skipped around the corner of the house to do his work and disappeared from sight.

Holly shook her head, deciding to let it go, and instead moved toward the car, automatically heading for the driver's door.

"Actually," said Artemis quietly as he came up behind her, "I think I will do the driving for this trip."

Though it was the middle of the night and everyone in the neighborhood was probably fast asleep, Holly followed Artemis's lead and kept her voice low even as she said incredulously, "_You_?"

"Yes," said Artemis, and Holly could see something like amusement glittering in his eyes in the dim light from the street lamp a few meters away. "Believe it or not, I'm more than qualified to pilot a number of different vehicles including a helicopter, a jet, and a variety of small aircraft. Trust me when I say I will have no trouble handling a simple car with an automatic shift."

Holly was not convinced. She had some experience with Artemis's coordination and basic motor skills; to say she had been unimpressed would probably be the understatement of the century. In fact, Holly guessed that if the teen was ever tied up and forced to enter an arcade, he might have a shot at setting a record for all-time low score, as long as it wasn't some kind of puzzle or quiz game.

"I can drive, Artemis, it's no trouble," she said in what she hoped was a non-challenging way. If he thought it was a challenge, there'd be no hope of convincing him to step aside, even for the sake of the good of all.

Artemis chuckled slightly. "Thank you for your vote of confidence. But no, that is not a good idea. First, we would have to find something to stack on the seat in order for you to be able to see over the dashboard. Inconvenient, you would have to agree, and possibly time-consuming. Even then, there is no guarantee you would be able to reach the pedals anyway. Also, though it's unlikely at this time of night, we may have the misfortune to pass a patrol car. It may be a bit conspicuous to have a figure that appears no bigger than a child sitting at the steering wheel. I would say the fewer humans you are forced to _mermerize_ on this trip, the better."

Holly didn't have a good comeback for either of these of course, so instead she asked, "_Have_ you ever driven a car before?"

"...Irrelevant," Artemis said airily, though his lips were still curled slightly with amusement. "No need to look so grim. I am at a legal driving age, remember? Unlike you, Captain Short. What are you in human terms – fifteen at the most?"

Holly pretended to be annoyed, but was actually finding this exchange rather enjoyable. "That's still at least forty years older than you in _actual_ years."

"Hey, I thought we were on a tight schedule," said Mulch, who had appeared beside them seemingly out of nowhere. "Are you two going to stand around whispering in the moonlight all night?"

Embarrassed, Holly stepped quickly away from Artemis.

"You're right," said Artemis, his demeanor growing serious once again, though he was rubbing his temples as though something was bothering him. "We need to go immediately. Did you leave the message?"

"Yes," sighed Mulch, though sounding as though he'd been severely put upon to do so. "Don't see the point much though."

"The owners will likely not even notice the car's absence until we are out of Tara and well on our way to the trade-off point, where the younger me is currently taking the lemur," said Artemis as he carefully opened the door and slid inside, while Holly went around to the front passenger side, and Mulch took the center back seat. "However, we are only borrowing this vehicle, and I believe it is safe to assume the owners will want it back at some point."

"Unfortunately, we won't be able to do much about the smell," Holly put in, giving Mulch a wink.

"Very funny," muttered the dwarf, while Artemis concentrated on backing the car out of the driveway.

* * *

><p>As it turned out, Artemis wasn't so bad a driver as Holly had feared. Which, admittedly, wasn't saying too much, but Artemis seemed to possess enough dexterity to keep the car on the road going in a mostly straight line through a deserted countryside at least.<p>

The next few hours of driving alternately down the highway and along back winding country roads at last gave Holly some time to think – and if she was being perfectly honest, she had to say that she perfectly loathed it.

Though Holly's eyes stayed focused on the shadowy scenery outside for the most part, from time to time her eyes would inevitably drift to her friend sitting in the driver's seat. His hair was apparently bothering him as every once in a while he reached up to brush it out of his line of vision, only to have the black, tangled mess promptly fall right back into place.

Though his eyes carefully scanned the dark road ahead, his mind seemed to be elsewhere, withdrawn and distant. If she really concentrated she could sense a vague melancholy radiating from him.

They probably would have gone along in total silence if not for Mulch's incessant chatter, a near-continuous stream of complaints about there not being any food in the vehicle and exultation over the huge haul that awaited him at the Tara shuttleport. Holly knew the dwarf probably only talked because he liked the sound of his own voice, so he was easy to tune out and soon her thoughts had so engrossed her that they shut out all else.

_I kissed Artemis_, she remembered, though the thought felt as though it had never left her mind. How was she supposed to feel about that?

_Disgusted?_ suggested her ever-reliable professional side. _Sick to your stomach?_

Holly found she did feel disgusted with herself, but not because of _it_. How could she keep dwelling on these things when they were in the middle of a mission? Why in the world was she allowing herself to become so distracted?

She was certain Artemis had detected the truth of what she was feeling back at Rathdown Park, when she had first awoken from the tranquilizer and had been for a moment so unguarded.

It was just as Juliet had said all those years ago, back when Artemis was still the People's enemy. _"Oh, he'd find out. Artemis finds out about everything. Sometimes I think he can see inside my head, too."_ Artemis's eyes indeed seemed able to penetrate Holly's skull, to see straight into the inner workings of her mind and read what her thoughts were. That keen perceptiveness was one of the talents she had always had to admire, however grudgingly.

What must he be thinking about her now? This lapse of focus, this _childishness_ could have negative repercussions in terms of their mission if she fell apart again as she nearly had in the gorilla cage. After seeing her act like this and knowing what she was thinking, would he ever be able to respect her again?

Holly stared out into the deep night sky on the horizon, at the tiny gleaming stars that dotted the expanse and at the moment seemed so far away. The vehicle rocked and jarred her as they went down along the rural country road, the soft growl of the engine in her ears like the distant, unavoidable approach of a prowling predatory animal.

An iron weight seemed to be forming in her chest. A dark, oppressive fog that hung over her head and clung to her arms and neck, pressing down on her. For Artemis of all people to look at her, not as an officer of the LEP, a reliable and level-headed friend and ally, but as a 'girlie' who cried and went into hysterics at a critical moment during an operation, who even for a moment would entertain dangerously puerile ideas, it was simply...

There was a yelp and a curse from the back seat as Mulch, while rummaging through his pack again to look over his spoils from his earlier heist, accidentally hit the button on the flashlight and it flickered on.

Grumbling, the photosensitive dwarf quickly switched it off again a moment later, but for a brief moment the inside of the car was illuminated and Holly saw her own face reflected back at her in the car window. For an instant she saw a shockingly young woman, a girl really, dressed in a black suit and wearing a silver wig, her brow so furrowed with intensity of thought that she looked almost angry.

Holly reached up with her free hand to massage the spot between her eyebrows, to smooth the crease, though it was a mere superficial gesture.

_Intolerable._

Just imagining his respect for her fading and falling away just like that, and so soon after the Hybras journey had left her feeling so strangely insecure as she wondered how much the world really needed or wanted her, was so intolerable, enough to leave her nearly paralyzed with the shame of it. Just for one thoughtless moment, one could lose so much.

As Holly's eyes stayed trained unseeing on the window, she felt her throat contract, burning with the effort of keeping her eyes dry.

She realized as she sat there that she would prefer any kind of reaction to one where his entire view of her would have completely changed, where he would start to look at her with distant, pitying eyes. She could take snide comments and hostility; even if he was disgusted by her sudden strange behavior, or she had to endure little smarts jokes about it from time to time, or if he flatly informed her he simply didn't find her very –

She stopped suddenly, distracted from her train of thought. Her brow furrowed further. No, she thought. No, that was wrong. That wasn't what she had meant to – It wasn't like she was actually hoping for some kind of –

Again she halted these incoherent thoughts right where they were. Because somehow she knew that completing them, even if for the purpose of denying them, was dangerous.

Instead, she shook her head slightly to clear it, forcing herself to switch gears, to try to get a handle on herself.

Okay, she told herself firmly, there wasn't any point obsessing over what she had done or may have done to their friendship. What she needed to do was back up and put this entire situation into perspective. With her adolescent dramatics, one would think the world was ending. But the solution to something of this level of insignificance couldn't be that much of a problem.

After just a minute of clear, focused thinking, it came to her. As expected, the way to repair this situation she'd somehow managed to get herself into was both simple and fairly obvious.

The fact was, the blame for why she was acting like this could all be rightly placed on their journey through the time stream. Adolescents were prone to behave in an overly emotional fashion, and the onset of hormonal developments were liable to make even the most practical and sound-thinking individuals act like trolls during mating season, with stupidly vacant, starstruck faces upturned to their object of choice. Even Artemis himself had gotten distracted at times during the events leading up to their disappearance to Hybras, when their opponent had been the pretty and intelligent, if a bit headstrong, Minerva Paradizo.

So all Holly really needed to do was explain herself properly. As long as she just let Artemis know how much the stream had altered her, casually assert that the way she was acting and feeling was all because of this childish adolescent body, things would work out. He had said himself that the effects wouldn't last beyond this trip, so they wouldn't even have to worry about it once they got back. All she had to do was tell him that, apologize for her outrageously abnormal behavior, and everything would be fine. She was sure he would understand.

Of course, naturally Holly didn't feel particularly comfortable approaching such a sensitive topic with Mulch sitting right behind them, listening in on every word they said, so she stayed silent and settled in to wait for an opportunity when she could speak with Artemis privately. But even so, as she made up her mind about a course of action, the burning tightness in Holly's throat eased, and she blinked as her shining eyes return to normal.

Instead, Holly turned her attention to busying herself in an attempt to bring some measure of organization to her thoughts, about what she would tell her human friend. However, the more she seemed to work to plan out ahead of time what to say, the more everything seemed to grow ever more confused and jumbled inside her head. She had always been better when it came to improvisation for this sort of thing, she supposed.

Holly eventually gave up and instead turned her eyes to really look at Artemis for the first time in the last half-hour.

She had been purposely avoiding doing this for a while, preferring to gaze out the side window with her chin resting on her palm as the darkness rushed by outside, while she shot worried sideways glances at him out of the corner of her eye. This was mainly because turning and just silently watching him was precisely the thing she moronically had the dangerous temptation to do, and that was definitely not happening.

But that was only because of this adolescent body, she had decided. So perhaps, as she would be going completely back to normal once they got back to their own time anyway, it wouldn't be such a very dreadful battle to allow herself to lose this once. To give in just a little, for the time being.

Her head still resting on her hand and her almost bored expression unchanging, her eyes flickered nonchalantly over the boy's worn features. Looking at him, she had to admit the urge was not because her human friend was anything particularly exciting to look at, dressed in the now seriously grunged-up tracksuit matted with dirt and blood, long tangled dark hair falling every which way over his face, and short, wiry stubble growing out of his chin like the spiky side of Velcro.

Rather, she thought, as she attempted to interpret her alien adolescent emotions and wants, she realized she was finding it very... reassuring, somehow. To just sit quietly next to the one who had become perhaps her closest ally, human though he was, this partner she relied on more than anyone, was oddly warm and comfortable.

Had Holly been here with anyone else, she had the feeling that she would have felt the necessity to take charge of things in order to make sure they got out alive, to make sure all the i's were dotted and the t's were crossed, except perhaps Commander Root.

But now, right here, she felt strangely relaxed, safe in the knowledge that this boy was taking responsibility for things, always scheming and planning to make certain things worked out in the end. Back when she had been an actual adolescent, Holly had still had the protection of her mother, so perhaps now she could not help but seek out that assurance from somewhere again. It was natural she would turn to someone she had known for so long, and even grown to respect.

However, in this sudden, short-lived feeling of peace, a sense of unease settled over her. She was disconcerted as it occurred to her that it was this adolescent form that allowed her to feel so much better now than she had as an adult, sitting alone in her apartment after her return from Hybras.

Even as the warmth in her chest remained tainted with that underlying anxiety of how Artemis was now judging how she had acted at Rathdown Park, she felt a sort of excitement that she hadn't had since she had first gotten involved in the affair with the demons, when she had finally gotten a break from her admittedly difficult, frustrating work at the detective agency to go find out what Fowl was up to this time.

'Excitement'... How ridiculous. But even so, she had to remind herself that this was only a temporary state of things. Once she stopped being an adolescent, this ephemeral sense of warmth would likewise die away.

And so, to enjoy this feeling, if just a little bit in this moment...

That was okay, wasn't it?

Holly was about to look away, definitely not wanting Mulch to notice her distraction, but then Artemis glanced her way and smiled slightly. "We should be approaching our destination now," he said.

Holly finally lifted her head from her palm. "Good thing," she answered. "Looks like the sun is going to be coming up soon." She glanced out the window at the barest hint of the red line just visible along the horizon.

Seeing the miles of empty fields devoid of buildings or the activity of the city gave her a good feeling. It made her feel purified somehow, closer to nature. Yet there were also those times occasionally when she was out flying above the empty landscapes for one of her Recon missions she found that it could also make her feel a bit lonely too.

She glanced back at Artemis, smiling. Not now, though.

The sun_ is _coming up," Mulch cut in worriedly. "Uh, how much further is it? We dwarfs don't like sunlight. I may have some sunblock with me, but the supply's limited, you know."

"We're very close now, so there's no need to worry," Artemis reassured him. "You'll be underground again in no time."

"Okay, human," Mulch grumbled. "Let's just hope you're more right about this than you were with your 'great plan' to get the monkey."

Artemis sighed. "It's a lemur."

* * *

><p>AN: Ah yes, and still more romance. (Are you getting sick by now, or just getting warmed up? (; )

Anyway, sorry this took longer to post than the others have been so far. When I read over this, it felt like it needed a lot more work than I had expected it would... And I didn't want to post it until I was at least marginally satisfied with it, though I'm still worried I may have put this up too soon. Unfortunately, if all the chapters are this much work to complete, some of the later ones might take even longer. XD Not to mention changing it so much tends to result in more typos...

But in any case, thank you so much to everyone who reviewed last chapter! (: I love feedback, so I hope to hear anyone's thoughts on this fic so far, if you like.

Posted 10/21/11


	10. Back to Reality

Disclaimer: The characters, much of the dialogue, and sadly, even the plot are not mine; they all belong to Eoin Colfer.

Pages: 176 – 180

Chapter 9: Back to Reality

True to Artemis's prediction, they arrived at the McGraney farm which lay above the underground shuttleport less than ten minutes later. Artemis deftly parked the car where it would be most convenient for the dwarf to utilize his clandestine entrance method which would let them get around all the tight security set up by LEP.

Mulch for one seemed dismayed to learn that Holly and Artemis already knew about it, but really, with people from the future he should have learned to expect it by now – A fact Holly and Artemis were sure to point out by silently staring at him like he was a moron. However, Mulch's spirits couldn't be dampened for long as he eagerly anticipated the unbelievable amount of booty he would be getting his dirt-encrusted hands on.

"Nice clay," he commented, putting his abnormally large mouth to the ground. "Tastes like profit."

Holly got out of the car after her two friends, and was hit with a blast of intoxicatingly clear, fresh air. She breathed deeply, taking in the smell of grass and morning dew. Sometimes she forgot just how wonderful the world was aboveground.

Holly pushed thoughts of the country out of her mind for the moment however, and remembered Mulch pawing the ground, his greedy face bright with excitement. She recalled again then that this was not the Mulch she knew from their time, so she would have to deal with the dwarf the way she had before they had become friends – that meant threats, generally. The bribery part had always been secondary.

Striding over to where Much was crouching, she kicked him with the side of Artemis's expensive shoe. Not hard enough to really hurt him, but enough to get his attention and knock him over. "There will be no profit for you if we can't get into the terminal unseen," she reminded him irritably.

"I thought we were supposed to be friends," the dwarf sulked, getting to his feet. "Easy with the kicking and punching. Are you always this aggressive?"

True, she had just barely punched him without the least bit of hesitation when they had been back by Rathdown Park, too. Sad as it was, she found abusing the kleptomaniac dwarf made her feel a bit more like her old self. Not to mention, she still hadn't quite forgotten the 'Arty this, Arty that' thing, and she was not feeling particularly charitable toward her and Artemis's mutual partner at the moment.

Holly chose to ignore the question and kept pressing him for reassurance that he could do what he claimed, even though she knew very well what Mulch was capable of. Better to take a leaf out of Commander Root's book and keep rather on the bullying side to make it clear where the relationship stood – Of course, she didn't have quite the experience her old commander had wracked up over the years, so her threats didn't have quite the same effect, but she was working on it.

Holly started a little when she learned that Mulch would have to leave them behind for a short while, as, unlike at Rathdown Park, this tunnel would be too long to allow anyone to follow right behind him – or at least too long for anyone who didn't particularly want their clothing covered in tunnel recyclings. With one last parting jab at Artemis after Artemis informed him they would give him fifteen minutes before they would follow suit, Mulch dove into the ground, disappearing from view in a matter of seconds. She and Artemis were alone.

Holly felt her mouth go dry as all the things she had been planning to say promptly deserted her.

Artemis, on the other hand, was looking at the place where Mulch had been a moment before, a look of something like admiration on his face. "What a species," he said in wonder. "If they could take their minds off their stomachs for a few minutes, they could rule the world."

This comment was enough to snap the imaginary tension like a dry twig, and Holly came out of her temporary state of paralysis. She almost laughed. Now _there_ was the Artemis she knew.

Holly turned and alighted easily onto the car's hood, where she laid back against the windshield glass. She closed her eyes and felt the gentle warmth of the rising sun on her face. It was so pleasant she thought she might have been able to go to sleep there if circumstances had allowed.

"Maybe they don't want to rule the world," she suggested, the hint of a smile on her lips. "Maybe that's just you, Arty."

Artemis said nothing in reply and a short silence followed.

_Now's your chance_, she thought, and her moment of relaxation slowly began to give way to a mounting sense of dread. _Just come out and say it. _Instead, she heard herself saying conversationally, "It's a pity we had to steal this car. But the note we left was clear enough. The owner should find it without a problem."

"Yes, the car," Artemis repeated distractedly, sounding as though his thoughts were elsewhere.

_Say it_, she urged herself, a silent desperation twisting at her insides now. _Just say it._

She felt the weight of the car dip as Artemis came to sit beside her.

The pressure was building in her chest and pressing against her jaw, but still she couldn't get her mouth to open. She needed more time; she still hadn't a clue what she wanted to say.

Holly remained silent. However, she kept expecting Artemis to start the conversation. Perhaps he would make a comment about how the mission was going, or ask her a technical question about the equipment they may get or something similar in order to gather information, as he was forever doing, but he said nothing.

Minutes passed. The silence weighed on her, and the time seemed to lengthen and stretch taut, as she tried to scrounge enough courage to just pry her lips apart. Yet anxiety seemed to sweep away whatever nerve she worked up, because she found herself also not wanting to put an end to this time just yet.

But still Artemis didn't speak and it occurred to her that Artemis already knew exactly what she wanted to say, only now he was intentionally granting her that chance to say it. Perhaps he was thinking, like she was, how his may be the last and best opportunity before the two of them returned to their own time. After all, this would be an uncomfortable topic for both of them, and once they went back and got reconnected to their own separate worlds once more, it would be hard to find a place or time where they could be this certain of privacy.

Right now they were sitting side by side, as isolated from everyone else they knew as they would ever be – who knew if they would ever stumble across a situation as suitable for this purpose as this one again.

For some reason, despite how much she missed all their friends and looked forward to seeing them when they got back, that thought made her feel a bit depressed.

Holly's eyelids flickered, and she quickly forced herself to snap out of it. That wasn't the point. The point was, she reminded herself, that this could be her final real chance to explain things, to alleviate this awkwardness between them they were both at the moment pretending not to notice. If Holly knew one thing about this whole event, it was that she did not want to leave Artemis's impression of her so unresolved, to let him think she was the kind of person who could be so distracted, made so unreliable because of some silly adolescent fantasy.

Holly opened her eyes, allowing them to shift toward Artemis sitting on the car hood beside her. She forced herself to speak at last.

"Sorry about earlier," she blurted, wishing she could sound as casual as if this just happened to be a passing thought, and not the very subject she'd been going over and over in her mind practically the entire car ride over. She continued hesitantly. "You know, the thing."

"The kiss?" asked Artemis, showing little sign of discomfort at actually saying the dreaded word.

Holly found she could not look at him. She felt hot embarrassment creeping up her face and she had to close her eyes again to keep her voice steady. As she went on, Holly forced herself to pace the words, keeping them even and natural, despite the fact her every instinct was screaming at her to say everything in a rush and get it all out and over with a soon as possible.

"Yes," she answered, then added honestly, unable to stop herself, "I don't know what's happening to me. We're not even the same species. And when we go back, we will be ourselves again."

She could have grimaced. This wasn't what she wanted to say – These things that only made what was going through her time-regressed mind even more sadly obvious.

Holly pressed a hand to her face, fingers extended to cover both her eyes, a burning feeling a little like shame starting at the front of her forehead and slowly spreading through her like the heating of an iron.

"Listen to me," she said, lips half-twitching into a self-mocking smile. "Babbling. The LEP's first female captain."

And now she was prattling on even more. Artemis was almost always so efficient with his words, perhaps he would soon start to get impatient. She needed to hurry up and get to the point.

"That time stream has turned me into what you would call a teenager again," she finished. Yes, that would explain it to him. That was the real excuse for why she was acting this way.

Holly pulled her hand away from her face and slowly opened her eyes to see Artemis's reaction, and found he was watching her intently from behind a curtain of dark hair.

As usual, she could not tell what he was thinking behind those sharp, mismatched eyes. Even her magical empathy was so weak at the moment she could only get the vaguest sense of a sort of confusion of conflicting emotions. But once again, she didn't see hostility or annoyance in those eyes.

Now she would say it. Give them both the resolution they needed to this little episode, and make things the same as they had always been between them.

_Oh well, it's like you said. This is all temporary, like dress-up. We'll be ourselves again soon enough. __**I'll**__ be myself again._

If she could just say that, this would all be over, and they could both breathe a sigh of relief as their easy, relatively straight-forward friendship went back to normal.

The words were already on her tongue as she stared back into Artemis's mismatched eyes, the light from the rising sun illuminating his pale face.

But Holly Short had never been much good at lying, especially to herself. And so she said instead, smiling softly, despite all the worries that ate away inside her, despite her lack of confidence, "What if I'm stuck like this? That wouldn't be so bad, would it?"

Silence filled the space between them as she waited for a response. It was not the dark, oppressive silence of before that had seemed to hang over her head and weigh on her mind. Her words seemed to linger in the air like the ringing of a bell, the light sound humming in time to the building sense of fear and relief and anticipation all mingling together in her stomach.

Holly had no clear expectation for what she thought he would say; never before had she found herself able to tell for certain what Artemis Fowl was thinking or feeling. She would not have been surprised if, pragmatic and focused as always, his answer was something like, _'We can talk about that once we rescue the lemur and my mother is well again, Captain'_ or maybe, _'It is highly unlikely that you will remain in that state once we return, so further discussion of it would be immaterial.'_ She would be able to live with those. She could shrug, smiling, and say, _'Okay, you're the genius.'_ Even if it hurt, even if it was hard, it was only to be expected.

And yet, deep down she felt there was a small part of her that could almost dare to believe, that could consider the possibility that he might after all be _favorably disposed_...

Artemis rarely showed much in the way of emotion, save when it came to the well-being of his parents. He always kept himself calm and in control, so that his emotions could not cloud his judgment, or be used against him on the mental battlefield.

As the two of them sat there on the hood of the stolen Mini Cooper, continuing to hold one another's gazes, he appeared the same as he usually did, face smooth, thoughts concealed behind an unyielding composure.

But then, his careful mask of calm and absolute emotional restraint flickered, then split. His face twisted as though he was in pain, eyes stricken, haunted, just as they had been when he had admitted what he had done to the lemur.

He spoke suddenly, as though the words had been punched out of his mouth, words that brought the adolescent Holly Short crashing back to reality.

"It wasn't you, Holly."

* * *

><p>AN: Well, I guess that effectively puts an end to the most romantic section of the book. (Well, okay, there will still be romance as Artemis and Holly's relationship is the main point of this fanfiction, but it seems like the sappiest parts are over... maybe? (; )

Anyway, thank you so much for all the reviews last chapter! I was worried about how it came out, I admit... But I didn't want to wait too long between posts, like I do with my other fanfictions. (I know, I need to work on EoD again)

Speaking of which, I was hoping to post this a bit sooner, but it turned out to be an unusually busy week for me and I couldn't get to it before now. (Even now, I have to get back to my homework XD)

So yeah, please review and tell me what you think.

Posted 10/29/11


	11. Just Punishment

Disclaimer: The characters, much of the dialogue, and sadly, even the plot are not mine; they all belong to Eoin Colfer.

Pages: 181 – 185, 189 – 190

Chapter 10: Just Punishment

Holly couldn't honestly say this was the angriest she had ever been. After all, her mother had died because of the idiocy of a few Mud Men, and her commander Julius Root had been murdered by a vindictive, homicidal pixie. But this had to come close.

"_You didn't infect my mother. I did it. It was me. I had a few sparks left over from the tunnel, and I made my parents forget I'd been missing for three years."_

The fact that Artemis did appear to be really sorry did absolutely nothing to quell her wrath. Of course, Artemis Fowl could make himself appear as sorry as he wanted if it suited his purpose – a piece of knowledge that, for obvious reasons, did not particularly help her current mood as the two stayed frozen on the stolen car, very suddenly in a decidedly different atmosphere.

Despite Artemis's pleas for her to try to understand what he had done, his lying to her and fooling her into believing that _she_ perhaps may be the one to have started a second Spelltropy epidemic, that _she_ may be responsible for his mother's death if Angeline really wound up dying, Holly had absolutely no desire to listen to any of his logical explanations, his cold reasoning.

How terrible she had felt, wondering how Artemis could even stand to look at her or be in her presence after what she had done – _ha!_ It was _himself_ he shouldn't be able to stand to look at. And at the moment she hoped he could never bear to look at that pale, thin, vampire face in a mirror again.

Artemis soon ceased his futile attempts to speak with her and the conversation lapsed into total silence.

Holly for one said nothing, certain that if she opened her mouth now she would probably start shouting and not be able to stop, just as when she had discovered her mother's omnitool among Mulch's stolen goods. And considering where she and Artemis were, it would probably be a bad idea for her to go drawing attention just now. They weren't exactly well-concealed out here; an old McGraney farmer might come out even in the early morning hours and start beating them over the head with a hoe before he realized one of them was an alien or a supernatural being of some kind.

But at the moment, Holly didn't expect this was the kind of anger that could be appeased by shouting or punching something anyway. It would probably be akin to trying to put out a raging bush fire with a sprinkle of water from a half-empty canteen, so she might as well save herself the trouble.

So instead Holly sat there, perfectly still, concentrating on getting a reign on the raging storm inside her. They still had a mission to complete, she told herself, whether she had entered into it on false pretenses or not.

"If there had been another way, Holly, believe me," said Artemis quietly after a long silence, breaking into her thoughts, but Holly refused to give him the satisfaction of a response.

"Please, Holly. Say something," he said, and his voice contained an unusual note of desperation. Almost begging.

Holly didn't look at him. She found herself thinking with a sort of spiteful pleasure that he seemed a bit pathetic, really. The great Artemis Fowl, pleading for forgiveness for acting the way he usually did, like people were all pawns in his elaborate game of chess. Though even now he wasn't really apologizing.

Holly was not the least bit tempted to respond to his pleas. Instead, she simply got off the car, feet coming down to reconnect forcefully with the hard ground beneath her. When she did finally speak, her voice was flat and cold. "Fifteen minutes are up. Time to move out."

As she made her way through the thick grasses of the McGraney farm toward Mulch's secret entrance and she heard Artemis coming along reluctantly behind her, it occurred to her that for once she was the one setting the pace, not the other way around. For so long she had trailed behind the boy and his genius, always looking to him for leadership, ever working to fall into step to accommodate his way of doing things.

But now, in a certain sense, she was the one holding all the cards, and it was _his_ turn to play by _her_ rules. While her rules were probably a good deal more civilized and forthright than his, she still fervently hoped he would find them about as pleasant.

* * *

><p>After a few minutes of the initial violent fire that had exploded to life in her gut, Holly began to have a thought that, perhaps if she had in fact allowed herself one good explosion and she expended this building energy in one furious, railing blast, maybe all that anger would have been derailed after all, even if at the moment she was finding it hard to imagine.<p>

Either way, she wouldn't get a chance to test the theory out, because, even if everything around her seemed to have acquired a dangerous red tint about it, she still had just enough clear thought to know she was going to have to hold it back for the sake of the mission.

Instead, Holly could do little more than just continue to think on the whole thing, thoughts as sharp and hard as flint whirling in a circle inside her head, the emotions building, pressing out against the confines of her small form. Her head pounded and, though her eyes were open, she was almost unaware of her surroundings as they moved. She wondered just how long the tiny remaining thread of her self-control would stay in one piece.

As they made their way out of the glittering light of the rising sun, descending down into the dark tunnel Mulch had left for them still in heavy, oppressive silence, the pressure at the front of her forehead continued to pulse. She would have preferred all thought to be whited out with fury right now, for pure emotion to overtake her and shut out even her ability to think, but on the contrary, her thoughts continued to speed through her mind like bullets, only adding further fuel to the rising blaze.

"_I don't hate you, Holly,"_ he had said right after he had lied to her, in such a gentle, comforting tone. Oh really, what a sacrifice.

From the very start, he had been lying to her, playing her like such an ignorant fool. And to top it all off, while he was doing that all along, she had basically told him she –

Holly's fingers curled into a fist in the Mud Boy's suit pocket, tightening so hard her fingernails dug into her own palm.

Though her expression remained impassive, her forehead felt hot as her face burned with angry humiliation. How had she let this happen? She had exposed a part of herself to the one person against whom she should have put up every barrier she could manage, and he had proceeded to degrade her further by rubbing her face in their lack of equality. He was the genius who would manipulate her for his own ends, and she was the puppet.

_And I kissed him!_ she thought. The corners of her lips tightened, as though the mere memory had left a bitingly bitter aftertaste there. _To think, I actually persuaded myself that I – while all the time, he was –_

Despite herself, Holly felt her rational side sneaking back into her thoughts. _But you know, _it said quietly,_ even if he was lying to you, it's not as though Artemis could have tricked you into doing that. You can't blame that part on him._

_Oh shut up,_ she snapped back. She felt almost ill with shame and mortification. He had planned all this. Somehow, this had all been part of his plan from the beginning.

_Oh really? He planned for you to act like a lovesick fool? That doesn't seem like it would help the mission much._

Holly set her jaw in obstinate defiance. However, though it twisted hatefully in her gut to admit it, a part of her knew it was true. Artemis, whatever else he had done, had really been doing absolutely nothing different than he usually did, besides expressing his anxiousness over his mother's life with a little more vigor than was usual for him. Not to mention, it wasn't as though purposely working to engender these thoughts would be in any way helpful to their goal.

In other words, that particular part of the screwup was indeed entirely her own.

The rational side of her mind continued on, regardless of the wrenching feelings in her stomach. _But it must have thrown him completely off-guard, _it mused._ He probably never intended to let the truth be known, to do anything other than take the secret that he knew from the start it wasn't you to the grave. But the way you were acting must have been so unanticipated; the guilt must have become unbearable. You were so pathetic that how could he not feel sorry for you?_

That thought made her feel more ill than all the others before. The last thing she wanted was his high-handed pity. Every bit of it had been an error in judgment on her part, that was all. It wasn't as though she had _really_ meant it.

Besides, the very notion of Artemis Fowl feeling guilty about something, especially guilty enough to change his game plan midway was ridiculous anyway. No, even this development of his telling her the actual truth must all be part of the strategy, as usual. It would be in his best interest to inform her of something that would be sure to turn her off him, so she would concentrate on the mission like she was supposed to, like a good little useful underworld contact. And even the sad attempt at reconciliation – He probably couldn't care less about what he had made her feel like, or that he had probably damaged their friendship beyond all hope of repair. Geniuses didn't worry about things like that. All that mattered in the world to him was the mission, the mission, the mission!

Holly knew even as she was thinking these things, about Artemis diabolically having planned all of this to the last detail and his sorrow over what he had felt he had to do to her being just pretense was preposterous and she didn't really believe a word of it. But for the moment, she was understandably in the mood to be as vicious as possible.

Holly also knew she would probably never have acted like she was acting now as an adult back in their own time during a mission, at least not to this extent. Refusing to communicate properly with Artemis could threaten their chances of success, and there were a lot of lives on the line. She could already feel her professional side's disapproval, though that same part of her was also admittedly relieved not to be pining away after her human accomplice anymore.

This volatile reaction was another consequence of her being made an adolescent again she knew; she was having more trouble controlling emotions of all kinds, not just those that she now found relatively more undesirable – which may turn out to be a serious problem.

Still, Holly somehow doubted Artemis was going to drop a comment. Not even he had that kind of nerve. And it was just as well – Because whether the Mud Boy genius found this professional behavior on her part or not, she realized as she made her way through the dark underground passage, its dirt walls reinforced with spit closing in about her, she honestly couldn't care less what he thought anyway.

* * *

><p>When they met up with Mulch, the dwarf was pleased to inform them that he'd already gotten the shuttleport's main door open, which was a relief to Holly considering it was going to be a pain for her to have to do it herself and then reset the record to erase the evidence of her having been there. This was the first bit of good news in what seemed like forever since the conversation with Artemis, though in reality it probably had been less than twenty minutes.<p>

"Perhaps our luck is finally turning," said Artemis once Mulch was done, almost as though the Mud Boy were intentionally trying to pick the exact comment that would irritate her most. It was a bit too close to what she was thinking, and having thoughts that coincided with his of all people was aggravating beyond belief.

Holly found she was surprisingly glad to see the pungent dwarf. It was good to be with a friend, or future friend anyway, who wasn't inclined to lie to and blackmail her. Well, at least not in a way that she wouldn't be able to see through from a mile off.

When Mulch mentioned a shuttle, Artemis seemed to feel compelled to ask her about whether they could use it to get to the trade-off point where little Artemis would be handing over the lemur, possibly before his younger self even got there. Artemis used his normal information-gathering tone, as though he thought that by sounding as though nothing at all had happened, it would make the earlier conversation disappear. Yet Holly definitely detected a trace of apprehension in the boy's pale face, which gave her immense satisfaction.

Holly had been giving the Mud Boy the silent treatment until now, but since he was forcing her to speak to him, she adopted a dead monotone as a means of imparting information. "It's possible," she said. "It depends on how long it takes me to cover our tracks." She supposed the mission was important enough to warrant this sacrifice on her part.

They all trooped in to where the shuttle was kept, and as Artemis looked up at the thoroughly weathered and beaten metal, he muttered something about the Stone Age, and laughed a little to himself, though his eyes were still troubled.

Holly couldn't resist. She wasn't sure what he had to laugh about right now, but she really wished he would be quiet. "Another joke, Mud Boy?" she asked, voice like razor wire. "You're really in fine form today. What is it this time? Did you tell some poor trusting fool that they caused a plague?"

She didn't feel bad in the slightest as, when she strode on past him, she noticed his expression sober and his head fall slightly, looking suddenly exhausted.

Ironically, as she headed for the shuttle entrance, she could feel all the while her adult, professional side continuously chiding her for her immaturity, but she ignored the voice. Artemis deserved at least this much, and a lot worse.

They all piled into the shuttle, an old tunnel scraper which was on the block to be refitted with replacement parts. As soon as she stepped over the threshold, Holly tore off her silver wig and discarded it violently to the side, as though imagining it was a certain Mud Boy's head.

Artemis trailed along a little ways behind. Once they were all in, Holly reluctantly volunteered, without looking at the recipient of the information, what she was doing to keep the authorities from realizing, at least initially, that they would likely never lay eyes on this particular vehicle again. She hoped this would be enough to prevent him saying anything else to her.

Her plan didn't work though as he asked, though with seeming trepidation, "Will that work?"

Irritated that he was still talking to her, Holly replied, "I doubt it. There's probably a smart missile waiting for us on the other side of that door."

Though he probably knew where this was going, he took the bait anyway. "Really?"

"No," she said, eyes on the front screen, tone almost bored. "I'm lying. Not nice, is it?"

Meanwhile, it didn't taken Mulch long to figure out his two partners in crime from the future weren't quite as chummy as they had been just a bit ago. His black eyes glittered as they flickered back and forth between the pair of time-travelers curiously.

Perhaps Mulch was glad to get a break from being double-teamed as far as snide comments were concerned. He seemed only too eager to join in on Holly's cold war against the LEP elf's Mud Boy accomplice, and when Artemis asked next if they could fly the scraper without a paddle, the two of them laughed hard at him, shutting the human out by turning to each other and speaking their disparaging comments in rapid Gnommish.

"Yes, Mud Boy, we can fly without a paddle," said Holly, feeling suddenly triumphant for some reason. The boy genius who thought he knew everything, and here she got to hear proof he obviously didn't. And it was so good to have another fairy here to share it. "Unless you're planning to scrape some residue from the tunnel walls. Usually we leave that to the robots."

Holly was grinning, and didn't care to stop even when she imagined how vindictive she probably looked at the moment.

Mulch seemed nothing short of delighted with this turn of events. His eyes on her face, he spontaneously broke out into some retro Mud Man song and sung off-key in his gravelly tones, pretending to hold a microphone to his mouth, "You've lost that lovin' feeling, whoa, that lovin' feeling – "

Of course, Mulch had no way of knowing that at that moment Holly's current mood was on a hair-trigger and poking fun at such a sensitive area in Holly's presence was akin to poking a sleeping tiger in the eye. Even more so in Captain Short's case, as most LEP personnel go through a highly specialized martial arts training that involves the mimicking of various predatory animals.

Losing all affinity she'd been feeling for the fairy dwarf in an instant, Holly said, voice very calm, "You're about to lose all feeling in your legs, Diggums, if you don't shut it."

There was an awkward pause. Not unlike the reaction one would get in pulling out a gun at a dinner party. The sense of imminent, immediate danger from an individual that does not seem particularly stable tends to have that effect.

* * *

><p>Holly did not begin to calm down until she started the shuttle moving and headed into the tunnels.<p>

She soon found, much to the chagrin of her passengers, she was able to sort of channel her frustration by piloting the craft like a maniac. With every insane, dangerously close turn, Holly felt just a little more of the red haze clouding her vision clear. She resisted it at first – a part of her wanted to stay angry over the affair indefinitely, to make sure she would never let him forget it – but as she sped the shuttle through the underground tunnel system on the way toward Morocco, the location of the trade-off according to Artemis, bit by bit she felt rational thought returning to the cockpit of her brain.

Consequently, in light of this return to the world of discernment and judicious thinking, Holly had to admit that it was hard to really blame Artemis for what he had done. This wasn't like when he had kidnapped her and ransomed her for gold before; back then he had been motivated by selfish personal gain. This time he had acted because he wanted to save his mother.

"_He's desperate. He would do anything." _So Foaly had said. Here was the ultimate proof that he had been right. Artemis Fowl, child prodigy, had even gone so far as to deceive his own friend who had trusted him to tell her the truth.

Yet how could she judge the boy, she wondered. How could she judge him, when she knew without a doubt she would have done exactly what he had done given the option? The hollow place in her chest even now testified to the fact that, whether her own mother had approved of it or not, Holly would have clawed and fought and blackmailed anyone she had to if it meant she could have had a chance to save her.

But even in reaching a calmer state, the pain of what had transpired still lingered. What hurt even more than having been made to believe she had been responsible for causing a ghastly plague, or being essentially betrayed by someone she had come to regard as a close friend, was the feeling that it had happened at all because they apparently weren't the friends Holly had come to believe they were. He hadn't needed to go that far, she was certain. She would have come to his aid anyway eventually, but he hadn't trusted her to make that choice without his blackmailing her first. Of course he hadn't – Artemis Fowl didn't trust anyone.

_Would you, though?_ asked a small voice in the back of her mind. _Would you really, if Artemis hadn't forced your hand? Maybe Artemis chose not to trust you, because he already knew you couldn't be trusted._

For a moment, an image of his eyes, ever piercing right through her to her innermost thoughts flashed across her mind, but Holly forced it aside. She was still too irritated to think on that line of reasoning. She would have without a doubt, she thought forcefully to herself. Artemis had just been wrong, that was all. What right had he had to make that decision for her? Even Artemis Fowl couldn't possibly know everything, even if he thought he did.

Instead, what Holly really needed to do was concentrate on how to proceed from here. She was still upset, but she knew that the emotion wouldn't last. She had to speak with him and work with him right now even if she didn't particularly feel like it, and she would probably have to continue to do so even once they got out of this particular mess here in the past. They had gotten to know one another a little too well to just go their separate ways at the end of this. She would probably even forgive him eventually.

Forgive, but never forget. As Holly powered the shuttle through the dark underground tunnels, with little more than the third-perspective view of the ship on one of the readout screens and the dimmest lighting outside to guide her, she silently vowed that she would never allow this human to get so far inside her guard again. Humans – Some of them may be better than others, but deep down they were all the same. They couldn't help it, like the ones who had caused her mother to perish so prematurely, when the she had still had so much more to give. There was no need to be 'friends' to get done what needed to be done, and as Foaly had once said, there was no being friends with a viper anyway.

Yes, that was the only logical response, she thought. Artemis of all people should be able to appreciate that. It was a just punishment – Or it would be, if only she could be sure Artemis Fowl would even consider losing a friendship a 'punishment' at all.

* * *

><p>AN: Another hard chapter for me... I'm starting to get the feeling that all the chapters from here are going to be labor-intensive to edit to get them where I want them, lol.

Anyway, if you're reading this, hope to hear from you! No strings attached, really. (;

Posted 11/4/11


	12. Kindness for Kindness's Sake

Disclaimer: The characters, much of the dialogue, and sadly, even the plot are not mine; they all belong to Eoin Colfer.

Pages: 190 – 193

Chapter 11: Kindness for Kindness's Sake

When the ship finally reached the desert landscape of Africa, the heat was too much even for the ship's considerable insulation to fully block out. Mulch soon began to feel nauseous, liking neither heights, nor heat, and before long he couldn't take it anymore. The dwarf disappeared through the door of the shuttle's bathroom adjacent to the cockpit, slamming and locking it behind him, leaving Holly and Artemis alone again for the first time since he had left them outside the Tara shuttleport.

A maelstrom of tiny sand particles was blowing around some ways below the ship, the storm not unlike a reflection of Holly's own churning, violent emotions just below the surface.

Holly adjusted the ship's course, then set the mining craft on autopilot and turned to face Artemis, who looked like he was only just barely recovering from her wild piloting. Good.

"You're sure about the rendezvous point?" she asked, making it clear that the only time she wanted to speak to him and vice versa was when it was something absolutely necessary for the success of the mission.

"Not sure, Holly," responded Artemis, his own doubt accidentally creeping into his tone. Apparently, he was about as confident in his own memory at the moment as Holly was.

He went on quickly as though to make up for the lapse, attempting to sound completely self-assured as usual, "But I clearly remember making the exchange at the souk in Fez. At the very least it is a place to start. If Kronski and my younger self do not show up, then we proceed to the Extinctionist's compound."

Far from fooled, Holly pursed her lips. She had to admit, she found Artemis's uncertainty disturbing, and ordinarily she would have tried to come back with a bit of encouragement of some kind to get him back to his usual, arrogant self. However, naturally that was out of the question right now; she did not think she had ever felt less like comforting him in her life.

"Hmm. This scheme is not up to your usual standards and our time is running out," Holly said coolly, without a hint of hesitancy at letting such an almost brutally tactless thing pass her lips. "We don't have a couple of days to play around with. Time is the enemy."

"Yes," sighed Artemis, and suddenly looked rather tired again. "Time is the crux of this entire misadventure."

This was beginning to stray into the realm of casual conversation and Holly did not consider it strictly relevant to their mission, so she put an end to it by taking out something to eat from the tiny refrigerator that Mulch had not yet managed to raid and went back to the ship's controls. She hoped her non-verbal message of 'Don't talk to me' was loud enough.

Though she didn't turn to look, she thought she felt Artemis's eyes linger on her a moment before he turned away.

Holly resisted at first, then, frowning to herself, sneaked a peek back at where he sat, though her hard glare didn't relax in the slightest.

Artemis had his nose pressed against the clear glass of the porthole, looking as though the brewing sandstorm below reflected his mood as well hers, though in a more melancholy sort of way. He looked so much less dignified than usual like that, so less powerful.

Artemis blinked and suddenly sat up a bit straighter. He got quickly to his feet, and Holly, startled, whipped her head back around toward the front windshield, her hands automatically moving to the controls, despite the fact that the shuttle was still on autopilot.

Holly heard him turn and stride from the cockpit, back toward the cargo hold area. Or at least, that seemed to be the direction he had taken as near as she could tell without actually turning around to look.

Holly focused hard on the ship's readouts. It wasn't as though she cared what he did particularly. Let the human do as he liked; she wasn't going to stop him.

Holly heard Artemis return a minute later, but she still refused to turn around to look at him, pointedly ignoring his existence. However, Artemis paid no heed and came right up next to her pilot chair anyway. He stood there silently for almost a minute, and when Holly still did not acknowledge him, he cleared his throat and said gingerly, "Holly?"

Holly didn't react at first, but, reminding herself she needed to work with him for the sake of this mission, reluctantly turned partway around without lifting her eyes. She saw that the Mud Boy was clutching something in his bony fingers.

"A holopack?" she sneered, unable to help herself. Her voice still had a tinge of the bland monotone about it, though with a pronounced mocking quality now, as she continued before he had a chance to answer, "Really, Mud Boy, is that the best you can come up with? Maybe it never occurred to you, but we would need a fairy to contact with another holographic system to match it." She smiled, almost nastily. "And if I remember right, Foaly said _not_ to contact him before we left, in case you've forgotten."

Holly had turned back to the ship's instruments before she went on airily, "While I'm sure it wouldn't bother you in the slightest to trample all over measures someone else has taken to ensure his own safety, it's not as though he would help us anyway. It was pure dumb luck with Mulch; there aren't any other fairies with enough gumption or trust to lend any support, Foaly included. Or were you thinking of blackmailing him?"

Artemis rode out Holly's invective speech patiently by simply continuing to stand there, holding the object. "Not Foaly," he said when she had finished. "This does not concern the mission."

Holly didn't react, but she had to admit she was curious despite herself. Something that didn't have to do with the mission – Artemis must really be straining himself. "Oh, is that right?" she said dryly, eyes still trained on the readouts in front of her.

"Yes," he said, his tone almost earnest now, even nervous. "I had... I have an idea."

"You've had a lot of ideas lately," said Holly without the slightest bit of warmth, though Artemis might have considered it an improvement as she was actually talking to him freely now. "But I don't know how many of them have been very good ones."

Holly noticed Artemis's knuckles whiten as his fingers tightened slightly around the holopack, but he didn't respond right away.

Holly couldn't help it. She finally lifted her gaze to look at him in the face, though she did so slowly and resentfully, like an art critic being forced to look at her least favorite painting.

"Holly," Artemis began, holding her flinty gaze steadily. The only evidence of his nerves was the way his fingers continued to tighten convulsively around the edges of the suitcase-like object. "Hasn't – Has it not occurred to you – "

He stopped, gathering himself, then started again, voice official and formal as someone making a business proposal. "I doubt you've forgotten, Holly, but Commander Julius Root is still alive in this time. I was simply thinking – if you so desired – it should be possible for you to contact him and say a few words to him using this." He drew the holopack up a few inches higher. "I know you were never after all allowed a proper farewell in our own time; this is your chance."

Whatever Holly had been expecting him to say, it hadn't been that.

Holly's obdurate expression flickered. She could not hide the look of shock that passed across her face, but she spun quickly around to hide from the boy the way her mutinous eyes teared up and her lips twisted in pain, hating the idea of this human of all people seeing her guard fall apart so easily. But the mention of her old commander had been so unexpected, she couldn't help but lose her composure at least a bit.

Holly was silent for a moment, trying to get a grip on herself, and Artemis seemed to realize this because he didn't interrupt.

When Holly finally did speak, she tried to keep her tone the cool monotone she had been using with him up to this point, but she had to keep her face turned away. "Of course I couldn't," she said abruptly. "What a suggestion to make." She added in the most superior tone she could manage, "Really, I thought you were a genius, Mud Boy – I would be _interfering_ too much if I went and did something irresponsible like that. The repercussions could be unimaginable."

Artemis, apparently ignoring the 'interfering' jab, shook his head, opening his mouth to speak, but Holly cut him off, on a roll now. "Oh sure," she said sarcastically, "why don't I just phone him up right now, 'Oh hey, how's it going, Julius? I'm your subordinate from the future, and I just wanted to say hi, since you're going to be dead in a few years.' What sort of moron do you think I am?" Though Artemis could not see her expression, she hoped her tone was harsh enough to get the point across.

"Of course you wouldn't have to explain any of that," Artemis said, almost gently. "In fact, I have thought it through, and I am fairly certain it would be a relatively safe venture. I wouldn't even bring it up otherwise."

"Huh," said Holly, in stark disbelief. "Like you were 'fairly certain' about your plan at Rathdown Park, and 'fairly certain' about what we were going to do back in your study at Fowl Manor. That's reassuring."

Artemis's hands were still clasped around the holopack as though it were a life preserver, but his voice came out steady and even despite her tone as he explained, "The Captain Short of this time is, I take it, at the moment busy with an assigned mission here aboveground. In other words, there is no chance that she would make an appearance over in Haven in the commander's office at an inopportune moment. Additionally, she is also currently lying in wait, so she is not occupied with any particular task, making it certainly possible for her, that is to say, _you,_ to be contacting the commander at this time from the surface."

Holly still did not turn to look at him.

"Also I imagine, though I can't say I know the particulars of what you might wish to say given this situation, there is most likely little chance that the Commander would ever repeat having had such a conversation with you, being as he is, as I'm sure you already know." Artemis smiled a bit ruefully. "Consequently, the likelihood of the Holly Short of this time ever hearing anything about it are slim to none. Even if something was mentioned, she would in all probability dismiss it, inclined to believe the commander was mistaken or possibly dreaming. Whereas he would think you only meant to avoid any image of attempting to raise your position through flattery by your denial you ever said any such thing... possibly, depending on what it is you want him to know. In any case, as far as I can see, there is very little risk involved."

Holly didn't answer, and Artemis said softly, "You will never have another opportunity like this one, Holly. This is your chance to tell the commander anything you were not able to say to him before."

This time, Holly's refusal to reply was not out of petulance; she simply did not know what to say. Her head was reeling. Was he right? She couldn't find any immediate flaws in his reasoning, but it seemed too convenient. She should not even allow herself to consider the possibility. And even if he was telling the truth, considering this was Artemis Fowl, there was probably a catch.

It took Holly a whole minute to get a hold of her voice, to stop it from shaking as she spoke. "What do you want?" she asked very quietly, though her tone still held the earlier flatness about it. "Why are you bothering to act like you would even care about that?"

Artemis did not answer right away. He seemed to be considering his reply very carefully. "Honestly?" he asked finally.

"Honesty, now that would be an interesting strategy," she said. Holly could feel just a bit of her bite coming back.

Artemis was still holding the holopack. Holly could feel his gaze on the back of her head as he settled himself awkwardly in the too-small copilot's chair. He said slowly, "I do feel terrible, Holly, you have to believe me. I did what I had to do. And I would do it again – "

Holly stiffened.

" – but I still... I still can't help but want to do something for you. To make up for it, if just by a fraction."

Another moment of silence passed, before Holly said coldly, "And you honestly think that by getting me a conference with – with Julius – that will make up for it. This and that have nothing to do with each other, Mud Boy. So what if I did get to talk to – to Julius. That's not really atonement for _you_."

Holly kept her back to him. Despite her abrasive words, she could feel herself on the verge of crying. Because she knew, despite her intense desire to refuse to allow her hopes to rise even by a little, a part of her was already irresistibly thrilling to the idea. She desperately didn't want the boy to pick up on it, but inwardly she could already see herself standing before the commander, all the things that she had thought she would have to keep sealed up in her chest forever pouring out at last. How much she appreciated him. That she was aware of how much he had done for her... But no, she wouldn't. She couldn't. It would burn in her mouth forever to be granted it by this boy, in exchange for such a compromise. Julius wouldn't give in if he were here.

"Well, I'm not interested," Holly said quietly, though with the same unreachable quality in her voice, the same iciness. "So just put it back."

Her eyes still fixed determinedly on the floor of the cockpit next to the ship's readouts, Holly waited to hear the sound of his footsteps trudging back to the storage rails in the back.

Indeed, after a moment, Artemis said, "Very well. You are right, that was a possible response that occurred to me."

Holly felt a sudden flare of anger return at his tone. "Well, good for you," she said with vitriol, turning around just enough to give him a savage stare with one cold hazel eye. "Apparently you aren't losing your touch after all, Mud Boy. You're still able to predict how people will react to things. You tell me I started a plague, I feel guilty enough to follow you here. You tell me I can talk to someone I – to my old dead commander in exchange for forgiving you, I don't bite. Astounding."

Artemis's face didn't change. He remained there, unmoving for a long time, before, slowly, he rose smoothly to his feet. He turned away without a word, heading back through the cockpit, but after barely a second, she heard him stop again. Perhaps it was part of his strategy, hanging back a moment to give her a chance to change her mind.

Holly tried to think of something truly awful to say then. Something so acrimonious, so unfeeling, that he would have no choice but to just give up and go put the stupid pack back where he'd found it.

Holly had known the boy for so long, she should have had no trouble thinking of something. But the only things that came immediately to mind had to do with his parents, with his own guilt surrounding his mother's illness, and as mad as she was at him, her anger hadn't quite reached the point where she could be that cruel.

Holly turned back to the instruments, squaring her shoulders obstinately, waiting for him to leave.

However, even after a few seconds had passed, the sound of Artemis's footsteps still did not continue, and she soon heard a collection of metallic clinks and clicking behind her, like the sound of an insect's pincers.

Curiosity got the better of her and she turned partway around again to try to surreptitiously see what the human was up to now.

Holly supposed she shouldn't have been surprised to find him kneeling near the back of the cockpit, messing with the controls on the holopack. She supposed she should have realized that one of the reasons the Mud Boy hardly ever lost was that he was stubborn to a fault.

Artemis's hands stopped moving a moment. He stood up and took a few steps back as the top of the device came open, the case's inner workings exposed. Then the object finished folding out of its own accord, and a moment later inflated upward, growing taller and taller until it had created its own tiny room, though it was still so small it would probably be more accurate to think of it more like a shallow closet, or one of those portable shower units Mud Men sometimes used.

"What are you doing now?" Holly muttered, turning most of her back to him again, though she still watched out of the corner of her eye. "I said no deal."

Artemis ignored her. "It appears fairly straight forward," he said, "so I doubt you'll have a problem. The controls are simple enough that it will be no concern even if you have never used one before."

"Do you make a habit of that, Mud Boy? Not listening when people are talking to you?" Holly eyed him as though he were the flattened, mud-covered worm stuck to the bottom of her shoe. "You always think you're going to get your way simply by forcing everyone else to go along. But I told you. I. Am. Not. Interested. Do us all a favor, and put that away already before I come over there and do it myself."

"Hm," said Artemis, raising a thin eyebrow. "The holopack is already here. Do you imagine I'm going to tackle you to stop you from using it if you don't agree to my terms?"

Holly blinked once in confusion, but made certain her face retained its mask-like quality, not wanting him to see it. "So?"

"So," said Artemis patiently, "you don't have to forgive me to speak to Commander Root. I think this is an opportunity you would regret missing if you didn't seize it now. You _want_ to speak to the commander, don't you Holly?"

Holly's face didn't change, but inwardly her stomach felt like it was twisting in knots. She wanted to snarl at the human not to talk about her commander, to not so much as mention him, because she knew he was right. She did want to speak to Julius – so much it hurt. But she still felt like she was being manipulated, and she hated it.

"Before, I didn't mean to propose a deal exactly," Artemis continued. "It was simply an idea. It doesn't have to be about what I did, or this mission. This is a chance most don't have, and I see no sense in your missing it."

Holly hesitated. Her relentless attack of attrition was being thwarted right before her eyes, just as easily as that. He was trapping her, using her feelings toward her lost commander to herd her emotions in the direction he wanted them to go, and even though she could see it, she still knew he was going to prevail anyway. Like a moderately experienced chess player going up against a master, the only thing her knowledge gave her was the ability to see just how she was going to lose.

"You really do always get your way, don't you?" she said quietly after a moment, not looking at him. She directed her hard glare at the far wall instead, a kind of admission of defeat.

Artemis suddenly let out a short, mirthless laugh. Holly glanced at him, but his gaze was no longer focused in her direction. "Me," he said, lips curled in a kind of bitter smile, "always get what I want. Hardly." His eyes fell again on the expanded holopack still sitting next to where he stood, and his expression relaxed into a more contemplative one. "Although – " he began, then stopped. He frowned slightly, and after a second more of thought, he said, "Hm. Well, that is strange. I'm having difficulty formulating the appropriate phrasing to properly convey my meaning."

Holly's irritated expression became more pronounced, mainly with the effort not to let her mouth so much as twitch in a smile. Honestly, sometimes remarkable intellectual capacity strayed into the realm of the utterly ludicrous. She didn't doubt that in this particular Mud Boy's world, realizing he was having even the slightest bit of trouble turning his thoughts into coherent sentences probably constituted a national event.

But for once, Holly did not cut in with a mean and/or snide comment. She was curious about what he would say this time, even if she was determined not to let it show.

Artemis must have taken Holly's silence as consent to continue, because he began again slowly, haltingly. "I am only too aware that there is nothing I can say – or do – that will in any way undo what has been done. Your hostility is more than warranted, and I don't mean to imply that I can earn back anything particularly meaningful so cheaply as this – I mean cheaply as in very little effort on my part, of course, not that it would not be important to you – "

Artemis stopped. He seemed to realize he was rambling and he shook his head slightly, then continued, "But in any case, I do not know whether you will ever actually feel any desire at all to so much as tolerate me again, let alone restore our former relationship as friends to even a marginal extent. That is out of my control." He gave a slight chuckle then too, unconsciously sliding a hand over his black hair and brushing back a section from his face, leaving his hazel eye momentarily un-obscured. However, he looked more weary than amused. "There would seem to be many things out of my control recently, as you have probably noticed."

Artemis turned to look at Holly with tired eyes, and this time she could not help but hold the gaze. His face was so unusually sincere, even ardent, as he said softly, "Please believe me, Holly, I would indeed still want you to go ahead with this call, now that the opportunity is presented. For your own sake, regardless of all else. I don't want you to have any regrets because of my actions."

Holly's face remained unresponsive, and once Artemis had finished speaking, his eyes slid from hers, as though he had found the effort of looking her in the eye almost intolerable. The silence lengthened and she thought she noticed the boy shift ever so slightly with discomfort.

How strange it was to see him agitated, even a little, she thought. But she had to admit it was partially thanks to this awkwardness that made it impossible for even Holly to invent a way to doubt the sincerity behind the boy's words. She knew from experience that the Mud Boy always appeared most uneasy and out of his element when trying to express his real emotions. He was so much more believable and eloquent when he was lying.

Holly realized that it was quickly growing exhausting, this constant suspicion that everything Artemis did and said was all carefully controlled to achieve a certain result. Especially when she knew she did not really believe even Artemis capable of that level of acting and manipulation.

Finally, Holly blinked and looked away from his pale face and the tenseness in his brow, turning her back to him again to stare unseeingly at the ship's readouts.

The truth was, Holly thought she knew what Artemis was trying to say, even if he did not understand it himself, or was too self-conscious to communicate it in a more straightforward manner.

Artemis had said he felt bad about what he had done, that it made him want to do something kind for her to 'make up.' What he had not actually said, but seemed apparent from reading between the lines, was that that desire did not come primarily from a decision to try to earn her forgiveness, or alleviate his own sense of guilt. No, instead she would call it an inclination to do a kindness for kindness's sake: a sentiment she would not have expected from Artemis Fowl.

Holly wondered vaguely if the boy himself would distinguish a difference between the those two things. The way that the first of easing his own conscience or gaining her pardon were, when one boiled it down to its essentials, merely Artemis operating in his own self-interest as usual, while the second was a rare act of real concern on behalf of the party he had injured. Did he consciously recognize that these things arose from differing mentalities, or did anything related to doing something considerate for someone else involve a concept simply too alien to the ruthless teenage mastermind for him to grasp?

Holly stood up slowly, without looking at the tall human youth behind her.

And yet, she thought, he was such a difficult person to forgive.

Holly walked around the pilot's chair to where the holo-unit had been set up, and she felt a pair of mismatched eyes follow her progress. She stood before the unit's closed curtain, staring at the machine, which she noticed was pretty beat-up and worn, now that she got a look at it. A little like the two of them, if truth be known.

"You're right," she said briskly, a certain coolness still hanging about her tone. "I don't need your permission to use the equipment. So I think I _will_ see him."

"I'm glad," responded Artemis, in a tone that sounded as though he had not expected anything different.

Holly felt a vague flicker of irritation again, but in the next moment she was beyond caring about the boy's convoluted stratagems and games for controlling her moods. Instead, new thoughts seemed to consume her, invading her senses and mercifully pushing the Mud Boy almost completely from her mind.

It was only just beginning to feel real, she realized. If this worked, in just a few seconds, she would actually be talking to Commander Root once again, for the first time in years. For the first time since – since –

Holly saw her hand was shaking where she had reached up to pull the curtain aside.

She stopped, staring at her own coffee-brown knuckles. Then, an instant later, she had closed the trembling hand into a tight, determined fist. Taking a deep breath, she drew back the curtain and stepped inside.

* * *

><p>AN: Ha, a fast update, wouldn't you say? Except I know I really shouldn't be doing this when I need to get to work on my homework instead... oh well. It will get done eventually. And this is way more important anyway, right? (;

Anyway, I loved reading all the reviews last chapter, thank you all so much! Hope to hear from you. (:

Posted 11/8/11


	13. Reconciliation

Disclaimer: The characters, much of the dialogue, and sadly, even the plot are not mine; they all belong to Eoin Colfer.

Pages: 193 – 198

Chapter 12: Reconciliation

After reaching out a hand toward the control panel and quickly keying in the commands to contact her former commander, Holly waited in the semi-darkness of the small, portable room, her heart pounding. Somehow, it didn't seem possible this was happening. Something was bound to go wrong.

However, Holly's heart nearly stopped when the light on the instrument panel suddenly flashed green, indicating her call had been received and she was now being connected. The holographic ring set in the cramped holopack ceiling above her suddenly came to life, bright light taking in her three-dimensional form and transmitting it miles below the earth's surface.

And then, so abruptly as to be almost anticlimactic, he was there, the image of none other than Commander Julius Root flickering in the vacant space before her, weathered features slightly digitized with poor reception.

"Captain Short," said the commander in that semi-hostile, thoroughly unimpressed tone he always reserved for recon's one and only female officer, "all is well in Hamburg, I trust?"

Holly should have been prepared. She knew what was going to happen, who she was going to be talking to, but she felt her breath catch in her throat all the same, and she thought she might choke.

For a moment Holly simply stood there stupidly, staring. The gray buzz cut, the glittering commander's acorns on the lapel, the blustery expression that did not allow for the least bit of flippancy or nonsense, the slight tinge of red that never seemed to quite leave his skin, the fungus cigar set like a permanent fixture between two rough fingers – every last detail was so familiar, assuring her that this was indeed her former commanding officer.

So many emotions were flowing through her unchecked, like the roar of a river, intertwining together into odd, unpredictable currents through her mind. A kind of exhilaration was beating in her temples and tingling in her fingertips. To think that right now, she was doing what was supposed to have been impossible. So much Holly had missed his welcoming scowl everyday when she walked into work, and even his daily ritual of bawling out at least one of his many underlings, often her. How much these last few months especially she'd found herself just wanting to hear his gruff voice again, but being forced to bury that silent emptiness beneath work and duty to the People.

Almost as though in a trance, Holly found herself extending her hands toward him like a sleepwalker, not aware until after the fact how much she really must look like the young girl she was physically right then, wanting nothing more than to reach out and take her beloved father's hand to welcome him home after so very long an absence.

Meanwhile, the deceased fairy in question was giving his officer a strange look. He made a noise in his throat, snapping Holly back to real life. "All _is_ well, Captain?" he repeated, a bit uncertainly.

Of course, Commander Root was probably not inclined to throw a party in honor of the reunion. Though it was likely unusual for him to be contacted with a visual form of communication like this, overall this call was as unremarkable to him as any other of the probably multiple dozen or so officers who contacted him every day to update him on their progress, ask for instructions, file reports, etc. However, Holly didn't have any desire to enlighten him, seeing as how that could cause a paradox and plunge the world into darkness or make the universe implode or whatever.

So, as though there was an automatic switch inside her to handle situations just as these, the LEP captain suddenly rejoined with such tones as she had always had back then, clipped, formal, yet with that barest hint of confident cheekiness that the commander had never lost an opportunity to chew her out over, "Yes. Of course, Commander. All is well, for the moment."

Holly had to resist the urge to wince, because of course she knew what was going to happen on her past self's current mission. Holly would forever remember Hamburg as one of her worst screw-ups in all her time with the LEP, though perhaps in retrospect it had not been so dangerous to her overall career as her involvement in the multiple Artemis Fowl affairs.

Holly couldn't help but add, even if she doubted it would do any good, "Though it might be an idea to have Retrieval on standby."

"Nonsense," Root said, without a hint of doubt. "Your record speaks for itself. You have never needed backup before."

This was such a high compliment coming from the commander that, had the Holly of eight years ago been standing here, she had a feeling that her past self probably would have suspected this comment came more from a tendency toward stinginess of resources, not wanting to send any more of his officers out than absolutely necessary, than actual faith in his female officer.

After all, Julius had basically put her through purgatory with a completely unreasonable, monstrous workload when she had first joined the ranks as a reconnaissance captain, and she had been certain at the time he was doing it because he was hoping to get her to cop out, and so prove that a 'girlie' didn't belong in the force.

Not until years later did Commander Root let her catch a glimpse of the real truth – that he had seen her potential and talent, and had acted that way in an effort to help her be the best she could be. Far from trying to get rid of her, he had believed in her probably more than anyone else.

Holly couldn't help but smile, even though she was fully aware she wasn't exactly behaving in-character for how the Holly Short of this time was now. "Always a first time."

However, Root didn't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary. Instead, his gaze momentarily flickered from her face to settle on something else in front of him that the hologram didn't show, and Holly thought she saw his eyebrows raise up by a fraction.

"Are you calling me from Africa?" he asked suddenly. "What are you doing in Africa?"

Holly mentally cursed. Of course, Foaly had it rigged so that anyone using any form of communication via fairy technology would instantly have their location identified and sent directly to Police Plaza. She should have thought of that. It was only the commander's tendency to not be particularly observant unless it was obvious importance to an operation that had probably kept him from noticing it right off the bat.

To cover, Holly quickly smacked the control panel with her hand, the universal sign language gesture that meant _'This is not working properly and I'm trying to fix it.'_ It was not a very scientific way to diagnose a problem with a device, but it was probably good enough for her less-than-technologically-minded commander.

"No, I'm in Hamburg," she said quickly, "in the observation hide. Stupid machine."

Holly hoped this would be enough of an excuse; the commander was famous for not putting much stock in modern technology. Her little act wouldn't have worked in a million years if she'd tried it with Foaly, but luckily she wasn't trying to contact the centaur.

Holly added hurriedly while she was at it, hoping to circumvent any other questions in case the commander noticed his officer had suddenly apparently transformed into a teenager, or that one of her eyes was the wrong color, "The projectors are all wrong too. I look about ten years old on the monitor. I'm going to strangle Foaly when I get back."

Holly thought she saw the commander smirk slightly. He loved any and all insults leveled at his most annoying technical advisor. But he quickly forced his expression back to his usual frown, the customary beet color of his skin glowing at the edges of his face, as though on standby in case he found an excuse to jump down her throat about something.

"Why the hologram, Short?" he wanted to know, getting straight to the point as always, without pausing to bother much about diplomacy. "What's wrong with a plain old communicator?" He added, with just a tad bit of resentment, "Do you know how expensive it is to beam sound and vision through the earth's crust?"

Holly's gaze fell away from his for a moment. She was used to his hostility, but it wasn't making this any easier.

However, this would be her one and only chance to say it. This was Commander Root they were talking about, which meant she wasn't going to find any gradual, natural lead-ins to her topic of choice. But he had always preferred his people to cut right to the chase anyway. There was nothing he hated more than waffling – possibly one of the reasons he and a certain Mulch Diggums had never quite been able to get along.

So Holly took a second to screw up her courage, strengthened by the fact that the last thing she wanted was to miss this opportunity because of a little shyness, and then forced herself to look back up at him.

"I..." she began nervously, "I just wanted to thank you, Jul... Commander." She bit her lip, wanting almost to sigh in frustration with herself. She had barely even started and here she was, already on the verge of making a mistake; she was so emotional that it was preventing her from thinking clearly.

But apparently her commander still had not noticed anything, and replied brusquely, though with a hint of bewilderment, "Thank me, Captain? This is most irregular. I'm not sure I'm doing my job right if fairies are thanking me." He looked at Holly as though she had just confirmed a long-held fear, namely that he was not actually satisfactorily intimidating or tough enough on his subordinates already to suit the rigor of the LEP. However, Holly thought she saw something else flicker in the depths of his mud brown eyes, too.

Though somewhere in the back of her mind Holly wondered whether she might be condemning her past self and a slew of innocent, nonpartisan LEP employees to yet more grueling, strenuous conditions than they had ever known before, Holly couldn't stop the words that suddenly poured from her mouth, like water from a released plugged-up valve. "Yes, yes you are," she said, contradicting him in tones far more passionate than she had intended. "You do a fine job, more than fine. No one appreciated... appreciates you enough."

Holly had to stop herself a moment to gather her bearings. If she kept making errors like this, she might ruin things after all, despite Artemis's assurance that this was perfectly safe. He couldn't have calculated for her being so careless. But Holly was finding it so hard to concentrate, now that she was finally able to say aloud the things she had said in her head a thousand times, but had no one to which to say them.

"But I do now," Holly continued quietly. "I know what you were... are," she corrected herself quickly with a slight stutter, "trying to do for me." Holly's breathing was slow and even, yet she could feel her heart beating against her chest, pulsing with a kind of melancholy sadness.

However, she could also feel within the sadness a new, glowing warmth as well. "So thank you," she said, staring him right in the eye, knowing the words couldn't convey what she felt, but satisfied that they were the best there were, before she added with a distinct note of solemnity fused with her usual brass confidence, "and I won't let you down."

Holly didn't particularly expect her speech to go over too well with her decidedly no-nonsense, churlish former superior, but she didn't feel she really needed to receive a nice response. She had simply needed to say it. After all, all that time she had known him she had never once acknowledged what it meant to her to have him there, to be able to rely on him to take her side in many a disaster that the council was inclined to blame her for. So it was about time.

Holly was already picturing him peering at her with beady, suspicious eyes, informing her that brown-nosing wasn't going to earn her any slack, or that if she wanted brownie points she ought to work on cleaning up her work in the field.

But instead of reaming her as she expected, he didn't answer right away. The skin of his cheeks still held that usual slightly darker hue, but this time it did not look as though that it was out of anger. In fact, if Holly didn't know better, she would have thought he looked as though he was trying very hard not to look moved by her words.

Sounding almost embarrassed, Julius said, "I... 'hem... I accept your thanks, and I believe them to be heartfelt." He quickly added roughly as a means of recovery, "Although I don't expect an expensive hologram call during every mission; just the once will be fine."

Holly had to fight a smile. Nice evasive maneuver there, Commander. Though she had to admit his escape of the moment of an uncomfortable amount of sentimentality had been shockingly tactful compared to what could have been expected from his usual way of dealing with things. If only she had known to be a little nicer once in a while when she'd been living in this time for herself and seen this side of him earlier, the two of them would have gotten along so much better. But maybe it was just the curse of young adults to always think the world was out to get them.

"Understood, Commander." Holly was relieved he had not seemed to have noticed her multiple slip-ups, but then, though he was an excellent commander, he had never been known for his attention to detail.

"And be careful in Hamburg," he went on, easing back into his role of constantly bombarding his underlings with a variety of terse, often unhelpful commands in telling them what they probably already knew to do in their sleep. "Make sure to check your equipment."

"I will, Commander." And indeed, she had checked it. Unfortunately for the Holly Short of this time, that check came right before a certain annoying dwarf stole it right out of her supposedly secure locker at Tara.

"Anything else, Captain?"

Holly hesitated. It seemed this short conference was drawing to a close. However, she would have preferred to stay on the line indefinitely. The experience was like something out of a dream, a dream in which she knew that once she terminated the call, she would be losing her commander all over again. But she couldn't draw it out any longer; they both had things to do still, to live their lives and carry on with their own responsibilities.

Wordlessly, Holly extended a hand toward the image of her old friend and benefactor. "Wish me luck, Commander," she said seriously. "One officer to another."

Root frowned and made a disapproving noise at the back of his throat. However, he seemed to accept the gesture, even if privately he found it a bit silly, and his own hand moved out to meet hers.

His holographic hand, with its chipped fingernails and slightly stubby, wrinkled digits, went right through Holly's, as though already he had faded to no more than a ghost, soon to disappear completely.

"Good luck, Captain," he said. "And try to tone down that maverick streak. Someday I won't be around to help you."

"Will do, Commander," answered Holly. "Good-bye." And, before she could change her mind, Holly reached down and severed the connection.

* * *

><p>For a moment, Holly stood silently in the darkness of the holo-booth, very abruptly completely alone.<p>

Though her voice had remained steady to the end, Holly had not been able to stop the tears that had welled up in her eyes, though she tried to blink them back. The aching loss pounded inside her.

Yet it had not the same sense of bitter failure and regret that it had that first time, when he had looked at her with a smile and told her to be well. This time, though it brought pain, she felt a tremendous sense of peace as well. That had been a proper final separation at last; she had finally been able to tell him all the things that had weighed on her mind for so long, and now she could know that he knew how much he had meant to her. That she may have taken it for granted all that time before, but no longer.

Even if a sense of sadness had settled over her chest, it was not an oppressive kind. In fact, she felt a kind of radiant heat from it inside her, like the first pains of a healing wound. Holly had to admit, odd as it was, she was actually happy right now, just a little. She would not have traded this moment for anything – To think she had almost thrown it away out of a childish desire to rebel against doing what some manipulative human wanted her to do.

Barely paying attention to what she was doing, Holly left the tiny makeshift room and deactivated the holo-booth, leaving the case where it was as she returned to the pilot's seat.

"So, are we even?" said Artemis tentatively once she had settled herself in and taken back the control from the autopilot system.

Holly briefly felt her irritation resurface automatically at the sound of his voice. For a moment, she was tempted to return, "It's a start; ask me again after you've had a hundred more great ideas" but somehow, even Holly found that an ungracious thing to say given the circumstances, and the real edge had long been taken off her anger anyway.

All according to plan, no doubt.

Except, she realized, she needed to stop thinking like that. If she continued to spend so much thought and energy wondering if everything that came out of Artemis's mouth and every flicker of emotion that crossed his face was part of some bigger underlying scheme, she would probably go insane.

"_If it makes any difference, I'm proud of you, Holly."_

The memory of her commander's words from almost right before Opal Koboi was to trap and murder him struck out at her unexpectedly, and Holly found herself wondering if he would still feel the same way if he could see her now.

Holly was silent, her face somber. Even if she could no longer ask him, it didn't take a genius to figure it out. Pining after Mud Boys and sitting around going out of her way to be sulky and resentful when they were in the middle of such an important mission in terms of the wellbeing of the People? That wasn't the behavior of an LEP officer. If he could see her, he would probably be shaking his head in disappointment.

"_I won't let you down."_ That was the promise she had made to Julius just minutes ago, the last real promise she would ever make to him. For right now, the first step to fulfilling that oath meant to start acting like an adult again, whether she physically looked or felt like one or not.

Now, she knew, was not the time to nurse a grudge, or pursue a risky, complicated inter-species relationship – not that she was planning to, though she was going to have to live with the shame of her earlier behavior back in Rathdown Park and above the Tara shuttleport for the rest of her life – or punish Artemis for what he had done. It was irksome to admit, but Artemis was acting more like an adult than she was at the moment.

"Yes, we're even," she said quietly. However, she had to add, with just a trace of defiance, "But your elf-kissing days are over."

"I see," said Artemis, his tone and face as unreadable as ever.

Holly replayed the last bit of their conversation in her mind, and found herself getting an unpleasant premonition. In her mind's eye, she could almost see the devil horns sprout from the boy's head as he thought to himself,_ Hmm, I wonder how much effort it would take to prove her wrong on that count. _He would probably do it just to prove he could, knowing him, as though they were in some kind of twisted competition. The humans had a saying that 'Love is war,' and Artemis just loved wars, at least of strategy.

"It's not a challenge, Artemis," Holly corrected herself, trying to put every bit of finality she could muster into her tone to circumvent that particular way of thinking. "Over is over."

"I know," said Artemis simply, and Holly couldn't tell if the statement was one of resignation or relief. Or if he even had a real preference in the matter.

They were both quiet for awhile, just staring out at the wide expanse of desert before them, the view mostly blocked by the swirling sandstorm below. But now they could just make out a range of small mountains off in the distance.

Holly drifted, thoughts of her commander returning once more as she piloted the shuttle with ease through the empty sky. It was as Artemis had said; she had really done something that no one else was allowed to do, telling Julius all that had been burning inside her to say for so long. In truth, it was an unbelievably lavish, impossible gift.

Holly glanced over at Artemis sitting in the copilot's chair beside her. Strange, how this Mud Boy could seem to make the impossible possible on such a regular basis.

Holly stared silently out over the desert. The end to the barren expanse was now in sight, and soon they would be past it.

Holly felt her lips curling upward irresistibly into the slightest smile and, though her eyes remained a bit sad, she felt the barest beginnings of actual gratitude start to form in her chest again. She and Artemis had been enemies for what seemed like such a long time after their first meeting, but she knew she didn't want to be enemies now. Holly was ready for things to be okay again. Artemis had taken the first step, and now it was her job to set the tone for their subsequent relationship through her actions, not just her words.

A pool of resentment and hurt still continued to simmer deep in her consciousness, but she forced it far to the back of her mind, locking it away for later reflection.

Without looking, Holly leaned over and hit Artemis almost playfully on the arm. "Thanks, Arty," she said, and her voice was warmer than it had been in hours. The atmosphere in the cabin seemed to instantly lighten, as though the weight of her attitude toward the boy had been a physical force pressing down on them all this time.

"You are most welcome. All I did was have an idea," Artemis responded modestly.

That was true. Artemis was indeed a being composed mostly of ideas and few actions. That was why Holly was there – to be the one to act on Artemis Fowl's brilliant ideas.

It occurred to Holly that the Commander Julius Root of this time hadn't the slightest idea of what would befall him in less than two years time. He didn't yet know a mere Mud Child would challenge the fairy people and that he, Commander Root, would have an alarmingly dangerous and difficult situation on his hands. His blood pressure was going to go through the ceiling.

Strangely, even though that whole mess when she had been kidnapped had really been quite the ordeal, and since she had become involved with the boy she had been forced to endure struggle after trying struggle, Holly found herself, on behalf of Commander Root and everyone else she knew, quite looking forward to those years that in this time were still yet to come. The fairy people's first encounter with Artemis Fowl.

* * *

><p>AN: Yes, this chapter... turned out to be hard, lol. I ended up adding in the entire scene of Holly's conversation with Root, even though I had originally cut most of of it out. I'm still not all that sure about that decision... It seemed so odd to have it cut out as I had it before, but having the whole thing in its entirety seemed sort of a bit much too. I'll probably be able to judge better if I ever come back and read this a couple years from now, heh. (But obviously, I didn't want to wait that long to post this)

Anyway, I've been so enjoying reading all your reviews, thank you! I'd love to keep hearing more, so please tell me what you think. (:

Posted 11/16/11


	14. Tall and Hairy

Disclaimer: The characters, much of the dialogue, and sadly, even the plot are not mine; they all belong to Eoin Colfer.

Pages: 199 – 206

Chapter 13: Tall and Hairy

Mulch finally came out of the bathroom. Although it appeared he hadn't heard a thing of their conversation, the dwarf coincidentally had a comment that went right along with Holly's previous train of thought concerning her old commander.

"That little lemur," he said. "The silky whatever. You know who he reminds me of with that buzz-cut hairdo?"

It was true; there was just something about the little creature that brought the visage of a certain person to mind.

"Commander Root," responded Holly, and she couldn't help smiling at the thought.

"Yep. A miniature Commander Root," agreed Mulch, nodding sagely as though he had just imparted some philosophical truth he himself had single-handedly uncovered.

"Julius Junior," Artemis supplied, joining in. Cute. Needless to say, a highly unusual form of input for Artemis. But then, though outwardly he seemed as self-possessed as ever, Holly thought she detected a certain buoyancy about his mood now, as though at any moment they might catch him humming as he went about his work if he wasn't careful.

Still smiling slightly as they finally arrived in Fez, Holly said, "Jayjay. That's his name." Her fingers shifted subtly on the controls as she made to prepare for landing. "Now, let's go get him."

* * *

><p>Holly put the craft down in a sandpit on a rural golf course some distance from the crowded main city. Artemis thought, and Holly agreed, that this was secluded enough of a spot that it was unlikely anyone would stumble across the shielded shuttle by accident.<p>

Meanwhile Holly and Mulch were by now both fairly well acquainted with Artemis's plan, and now all they had to do was determine what equipment would facilitate what role. Picking through the items they had swiped from the lockup at Tara earlier, Holly seized the only Neutrino as well as what appeared on the surface to be an ordinary duffel bag.

The duffel was in actuality a sort of inflatable pod that could be blown up and used as a transportable hideout, just big enough for two. It would make an excellent temporary base for this operation, as it would enable Artemis and Holly to situate themselves pretty much wherever they chose and still remain unnoticed once their targets arrived. In addition, Artemis would be able to keep well hidden and far back from the fight, so as not to become a liability when the action started, yet he'd still be close enough to direct his two allies' movements if need be.

However, Holly found herself staring distastefully down at the crumpled gray material. If it was anything like the usual gear doled out to LEP officers within their budget-deprived department, she somehow doubted it was going to transform into a deluxe office suite. But, comfortable or not, she supposed it would have to do.

Artemis soon came across a saucer-shaped disk, which Holly reached over and pressed a button on the side that made it fold out into what looked like a motor-powered scooter with a long, black leather seat. According to Artemis, the scooter must have been fashioned to resemble a 1950s Lambretta, though he added as an aside that, if he knew Foaly, he would guess it to also have plenty of useful fairy technological marvels worked into its makeup.

"At the very least, it will make getting to the correct location within a reasonable time frame quite a bit more manageable, I would say," he commented.

Lastly, Artemis dragged out a small, folded-up stack of native garb from a multitude of disguises from a variety of human cultures from all over the world among what Holly and Mulch had gathered from the lockup.

"Hopefully," he said as they hefted the supplies back to the cockpit, "these will be able to provide us another layer of cover to prevent our being noticed while we are en route to the trade-off point. The last thing we want is for a curious bystander to give our description to the wrong individual, and tip my younger self off to our presence."

Holly nodded, but didn't have anything to add as they set their burdens down and Artemis quickly sorted out the clothing.

Peering over his shoulder, Holly saw that for her there was a headscarf to conceal her pointed ears among the materials as well as a sort of dark, robe-like dress that her gift of tongues told her was called an abaya. The loose dress would hopefully help to keep her distinctly adult proportions from being too conspicuous. Artemis had found an extra-long brown shirt that went all the way down to his knees and a pair of sandals for himself. However, Holly saw no sandals her size among what Artemis had brought out, so she figured that meant she would have no choice but to keep wearing Artemis's loafers.

As she looked at the dwindling pile, Holly realized something.

"Only two?" she asked.

"It is still daylight even if it will soon start to cool off," Artemis answered, "so it goes without saying that Mr. Diggums will be approaching the souk via the underground. Therefore, he will have no need for a disguise. The two of us will take the scooter loaded with the necessary equipment and make our way to the trade-off location separately."

Holly shrugged as she took up the dress and scarf, holding them up to get a better look at them. The abaya would probably reach all the way down past her ankles, which she noted may make it difficult to run in if she found herself in a situation where she needed to make a quick getaway.

Since joining the LEP, Holly had gotten into the habit of never wearing anything that could impede her movement or possibly trip her up, and she had never particularly cared for any clothing that might be considered feminine anyway. So Holly would guess it had probably been years since she had worn her last dress. Perhaps not since that time her mother had agreed to go to that upscale party one of her doctor friends was throwing, and after a long argument her mother had managed to force her into that white silk nightmare...

Holly felt a lump try to form in her throat, and she quickly forced her mind back to the present.

Holly lifted the abaya again. In any case, it didn't appear the skirt would reach far enough to conceal the shoes that clearly did not match with the rest of the costume. Holly could only hope no one would pay her enough mind to notice.

Artemis coughed slightly, causing Holly to turn round. He said briskly, though keeping his voice fairly low, "Very well then, I shall take the cargo hold, you take the bathroom and we will reconvene in just a few minutes."

"Right," said Holly, annoyed with herself when she felt her face growing slightly warm. It wasn't really the sort of thing she should worry about in the middle of a mission, but the thought of changing clothes was bringing back slightly unpalatable memories. She recalled with a mental groan Nº1's parting joke as they'd stood there in their underwear holding hands, _"I now pronounce you man and elf."_

Holly noticed Mulch watching them curiously from across the cockpit. He grinned and winked, and suddenly she was extremely grateful for the fact that only Foaly and Nº1 had been involved in that particular scene before she and Artemis had made their way back to this time. However wince-worthy Nº1's attitude had been, Mulch's version was bound to have been a hundred times worse.

Holly's face quickly morphed into a glare. "Well, how long are you going to stand there?" she demanded aggressively. "We're not getting any younger here, and we'll be traveling faster than you."

Mulch frowned, pretending to look hurt. "Okay, okay. No need to get vicious, Captain. I didn't know you were so old you'd be worrying about your age already, guess it must be a female thing." He turned to Artemis and said in a stage whisper, putting the back of one hand to one side of his mouth as though to block Holly out, "Captain or not, I think maybe this one needs to deal with some of those anger issues before she's given authority over others."

Artemis's lip twitched as though he were trying not to smile.

Before Holly could cut in with her own acidic comeback however, Artemis said, "Yes, thank you, Mulch. But it is true we are a little pressed for time."

"Time travelers, pressed for time," he said, smirking. "Now isn't that interesting."

Holly made a noise in her throat not unlike a growl. However, Mulch ignored her as he stood up leisurely from his chair and, sauntering over to the side exit, abruptly took off into the underground, though not before he shot one last insinuating grin at Holly over his shoulder. If he was disappointed his two companions were now on speaking terms again, he certainly wasn't showing it.

As soon as he was gone, Holly slumped, grimacing and rubbing her forehead as though suddenly exhausted. "Always a battle to get him to do much of anything," she muttered. "I just hope he doesn't decide to up and ditch us on this fiasco. We'd be in serious trouble."

"Little worry of that, I think," said Artemis, who by this time was already halfway to the cargo hold.

Holly let her hand fall from her face and she turned to him, eyebrows slightly raised. "Glad to see you so confident all of sudden."

Artemis shrugged slightly, pausing at the door and turning his head back a moment to say, "Simple matter of what cards we hold, and what is in his best interests. First of all, we have the shuttle's starter chip. As a thief, Mulch is far from lacking intelligence, and to leave now would mean abandoning much of the reward he has been working for. Even if he decides the shuttle itself is not particularly valuable, an entire trolley would certainly be cumbersome to cart around without something with which to transport it."

However, despite this speech, Holly thought she noticed the boy double-checking his pocket for the chip just to be sure.

Holly couldn't help grinning slightly. "I guess you're right," she said. "For a second there, I thought you were going to say something about how he's going to be our friend someday and we should try to believe in him."

Artemis shrugged again, though the tiniest smile curled the corner of his mouth. "Such naivety is not a trait I possess, unfortunately."

Isn't that the truth, she thought. And, laughing slightly and shaking her head, Holly gathered up the abaya and headscarf and turned toward the bathroom.

* * *

><p>Holly quickly stripped out of Artemis's suit, which, now that she took the time to notice, looked thoroughly beaten and worn, with too many tears and threads coming loose everywhere, as though the wearer had been through several natural disasters. She wondered what little Artemis would think about it once he noticed the state of his first suit when it finally made its way back to the closet in Fowl Manor.<p>

Holly quickly donned the dress and pulled on the headscarf so that it went completely over her head, covering her neck. This was quite a bit better than the wig she had to say, which was beginning to fall apart now after all it had been put through. The scarf stayed on quite a bit better, and she didn't have to keep reaching up to check that her pointed ears were completely covered.

Holly stepped back to give herself a quick examination in the mirror. Besides the mismatched eyes, she thought she could easily pass as a native girl if no one got too close a look at her face, which lacked the baby fat a real Mud Child her size would have had. In fact, with her darker skin tone she might actually blend in better than Artemis. There was no helping the fact that her human companion, pale as he was like he'd never spent a day in the sun in his life, was going to look like some lost tourist no matter what he wore.

Now, just one last thing. As Holly strapped the single Neutrino she had stolen out of the Tara lockup to her leg and pulled the long dress down to conceal it, she found herself feeling suddenly much better about their situation.

This was it – they would nab Jayjay and then hustle back to their own time. Finally.

Holly emerged from the bathroom to find Artemis already in the cockpit again, standing by the discarded holopack waiting for her. Seeing him in the overly-long shirt and sandals, with his long tangled black hair hanging in his face and stubble poking out of his chin, when usually the teenager never went anywhere without one of his precious suits or with one hair out of place, Holly found herself having to fight not to laugh.

Artemis was holding the platinum, Frisbee-sized disc which concealed the collapsible scooter, and had slung the duffel bag that was actually an inflatable cham pod over his shoulder.

Artemis surveyed her new appearance for a second, then nodded approvingly. "You'll fit right in."

"You too," said Holly, snickering.

Artemis handed her the duffel and was already going for the ceiling hatch.

"These disguises are more or less just a necessary precaution," he explained unconcernedly. "As I said, we do not want to attract attention unnecessarily. But this area is fairly remote, so if all goes well we will not run into many citizens up close, at least not for long enough to raise suspicions. Even when we arrive at the souk, which is near a more dense population and so has a great deal more activity, there are back paths we should be able to take to minimize human contact. For reasons that you will discover fairly quickly, most besides the leather workers do not like to spend a lot of time in that particular part of the city."

Holly decided not to ask about that last tidbit of information; she had a feeling she would know soon enough. Holly just nodded; he didn't have to explain any of this, but she was getting so she just rolled with it. Perhaps giving lectures was just Artemis's own peculiar way of calming his nerves.

Wordlessly, Holly climbed out the top hatch after Artemis. For a moment, the two of them probably appeared to be standing suspended in midair as they remained atop the round, dome-shaped part of the invisible ship poking out of the sand.

"I sure hope you're right about this, Artemis," said Holly, hopping down as Artemis carefully brought down one foot, then the other, though the height above the sand couldn't have been more than a foot. "I would sure hate to trek all the way down here only to discover this trade's actually taking place somewhere else."

Holly wiped sweat from her forehead. They had been standing in the sunlight for less than a minute, but the heat already felt as though it was being focused by a giant magnifying glass right on the spot where they stood. Evening would be setting in soon and the air was probably already starting to cool down from what it was when the sun was at midday, but the climate here was harsh.

"Indeed," Artemis agreed. "But there is little choice. We can't afford to miss this chance in the case that my memory is correct in this instance."

Holly sighed. "How far are we exactly from 'the souk' anyway?"

"Not far," Artemis assured her. He touched a button to activate the disc, which promptly unfolded into the LEP scooter disguised a Mud Man-made Lambretta. "Less than an hour and a half's journey from here, I would say."

* * *

><p>One hour, twenty-seven minutes later, they arrived at the place known as 'the souk,' a large sort of courtyard filled with squat, circular stone vats packed closely together like the surface of a honeycomb. The area was surrounded by an almost continuous surface of off-white buildings spattered with dye from the vats the many workers were using to color the animal skins they intended to sell. The buildings were all connected, forming a kind of wall enclosing the area in an irregular geometric shape.<p>

Despite how ghastly the smell was, the area was quite crowded, but Artemis managed to steer the both of them to a tall, old stone building that that would give them the perfect view of the entire souk from overhead.

Holly could not say that the trip over had been the most pleasant one in the world. Artemis had been the one to handle the driving, as usual, so that meant she had had to sit right behind him. Because of the dress, she'd thought at first she'd probably better try sitting sideways, even if it was less comfortable and made her feel some prissy princess-wannabe, not unlike Corporal Frond.

However, this plan was destined for failure as Artemis seemed to be in something of a hurry, apparently wanting to make certain they reached the souk before his younger self did, and so went faster than was probably safe for one of his reflexes to go. Consequently, every slight bump or hole they hit had threatened to throw her off, which, considering the state of the road in some areas, was quite often.

Consequently, it wasn't long before Holly was forced to give in to the fact that the most secure way to ride was to sit facing forward with her arms around Artemis's waist. She had to pull up her robe-like dress a bit (though not enough to reveal the Neutrino secured to her upper calf) to get her legs on either side of the scooter seat so she could sit properly, holding herself against the Mud Boy's back.

With the heat of the day beating down on them as they cruised along down the desert highway, when they finally reached their destination it almost felt like they had been glued together with sweat. It wouldn't have been any worse than anything else she had ever been forced to endure as a recon officer before, except that her mortified adolescent brain kept supplying her with the most idiotic thoughts that went something like: _I really hope he's not thinking about how gross this feels_.

Holly was forced to recover quickly however as they toted the duffel and scooter up a flight of stairs and came across the balcony Artemis had apparently remembered from his own previous visit to the souk eight years ago, which was happening in this time on his very day... Holly decided to stop trying to think too much on that one, before her head started to hurt. The point was, he already had the perfect spot for their purposes determined and so they made straight for it.

Holly didn't even bother to ask how he had even noticed, let alone remembered such a thing from so long ago. Instead, she turned her attention to getting the duffel blown up to its full capacity, probably less than twice the size of the holo-booth room from before at its largest. The piece of equipment was able to change color based on its surroundings, similar to a chameleon, hence the name "cham pod." Or, as Artemis would have said had Holly mentioned this, similar to the powers chameleons were generally mistakenly believed to possess.

In any case, the pod was virtually invisible to the workers and tourists below once they hoisted the pod down from the landing above and attached it to the dark surface underneath the protruding balcony. When the coast was clear, they climbed down into the exposed entryway at the side of the ovular object, and the pod swallowed them from sight.

Holly was far from astonished to find the pod every bit as cramped inside as she had expected – and that was by a fairy's standards. In fact, Holly had to suppress the feeling of claustrophobia that immediately washed over her, but it helped having the power to simply press a button to open the exit and leave of her own will if she needed to.

In fact, as she glanced over at Artemis, curled up in a virtual ball by the diminished size of the pod seats, Holly found herself grinning slightly and realized she was actually feeling rather cheerful, despite the circumstances. She must still be riding a kind of high from the talk with Julius.

And, she supposed, getting back on good terms with Artemis again wasn't hurting her attitude either.

"Like I said," noted Holly, eying Artemis's squashed form, legs crammed up against his chest, "you're getting tall." It was so bizarre – she would forget about it for a while only to have the oddness of it come back to her mind at the strangest times.

"And hairy," Artemis commented dryly, blowing at one of the many dark, rope-like strings that hung annoyingly in his face. That was one of the reasons Holly herself had always preferred to keep her hair on the short side, even before she'd joined the military-like training program in the LEP. Though now that she was long passed being a trainee where crew cuts were required, she impulsively had a thought she might try growing it out a bit again. Just for a change.

"Your hair was the only thing that stopped little Arty from recognizing himself, so be glad of it," Holly pointed out. She hoped her voice hadn't sounded as chipper to Artemis as it did to her.

However, her mood was dampened somewhat by the infernal smell rising up from the souk, which the simple cham pod didn't have the technology to even try to block out. The stench was so overpowering, Holly drew her headscarf up over her mouth and nose and held it there, though she had to admit it didn't help all that much.

According to Artemis, the smell came from the endless supply of diluted pigeon droppings which, because of the material's acidic qualities, was used by the workers to soften the animal skins for the leather before dying them.

"Why did Kronski choose the souk?" Holly asked. Damon Kronski was the name of the man young Artemis was doing business with, the president of the Extinctionists. The president ironically also held the title of 'doctor,' despite the fact that his only business was probably the killing of rare animals.

"The stink is almost unbearable," she added, "and I say that as a friend of Mulch Diggums."

The two of them chatted a bit more, and Holly was interested if a bit irked to learn that Kronski specifically picked out the souk as a setting because he had been born with a condition that meant he hadn't a sense of smell. _Anosmia_, so Artemis called it.

However, while they were talking the two of them continued to scan the crowd in the souk through the plastic portal inset into the wall of the cham pod in front of them, searching out their targets. Finally Artemis spotted the doctor amidst the tourists, tanners and salespeople, and pointed him out.

The man was hard to miss, now that Holly looked, big as he was and dressed in a ridiculous camouflage suit, like some kind of a Mud Man military official, though without the toned physical fitness of a real soldier. Kronski didn't look like he had done more exercise than eating hard-to-chew steaks and walking leisurely to drop-off points to exchange for animals he meant to slaughter in decades.

Even knowing what the Extinctionists stood for, the sort of things they did for "fun," Holly realized that she, having never seen one of them with her own eyes, had never until this moment fully appreciated just how despicable the people were. She felt her nose wrinkling, but this time it wasn't from the smell.

Extinctionists, she thought. What a concept. Only Mud Men would even think to build an entire organization around wiping out entire species. It was so ridiculous it was laughable – except they were all dead serious, so Holly couldn't so much as crack a smile.

"Look at him," she said with disgust. "He loves this."

And indeed, the man was enjoying every bit of it, she knew – being in a place that smelled so awful to all but himself, surrounded by hundreds, probably thousands of animal hides, provided through the deaths of so many animals, and on the verge of getting his hands on yet another animal to slaughter – He was probably having the time of his life.

Artemis did not respond for some reason. Perhaps he could not particularly find the ways of this 'Damon Kronski' so awful as she could. To a certain extent for him, business was business, after all. In the end, in his mind saving Jayjay was merely the means to saving his mother.

"There I am," said Artemis, gesturing at an area visible through the portal. "West corner."

Holly turned her attention from Kronski to finding the little villainous Artemis. It took a bit more doing than locating the doctor; unlike the pompous Extinctionist president, who probably wouldn't mind if the entire souk was looking at him, little Artemis, despite the fact he was hardly able to keep from standing out, being a ten-year-old boy dressed in a suit and gripping a cage with a rare animal stowed inside, was standing nearly concealed by one of the dye vats near the middle of the courtyard.

"It looks like your memory is accurate on this occasion," said Holly, shooting a glance at her human partner.

Artemis let out a small breath, otherwise his only indication that he had feared differently. But suddenly he froze, then sat up a little straighter, a faraway look in his eye.

Before Holly could ask "What is it?" the look was gone and Artemis was fiddling with the one-way touch screen, which allowed the occupants of the pod to blow up sections of what they were viewing through the portal. Artemis pointed at a magnified image of a sort of short stone table used perhaps to set drying hides, now stretching out between the doctor and little Artemis at the very center of the souk, separating the two.

"There," he said. "That's where we agreed to make the exchange. Kronski lays the suitcase on the rock. I hand it over."

Holly glanced at him sharply, frowning. "_Him_," she corrected, a little more forcefully than she probably needed to. "The lemur is a male, and his name is Jayjay."

"I hand over Jayjay," he said, a little reluctantly. "Then we go our separate ways, simple as that. There were no complications."

Funnily enough, Holly did not find this assertion particularly reassuring.

"Perhaps we should wait until after the handoff?" Holly suggested.

"No," Artemis replied firmly. "What happens afterward is an unknown quantity. At least now we have some foreknowledge."

As they talked, both pairs of mismatched eyes still watched the scene carefully, until Holly suddenly remembered something, and worry etched itself onto her brow.

"Where's Butler?" she asked warily, quickly scanning the area for any sign of the hulking bodyguard.

Holly was relieved when Artemis immediately pointed to a certain spot on the filthy, white wall surrounding the souk opposite where they had stationed the cham pod.

"In that window. Watching over everything."

Holly changed the filter on the image, and immediately Butler's form appeared on the screen in an array of lighter tones, unmoving.

"I remember Butler wanted to make the exchange, but I talked him out of it," Artemis commented. "He's up there right now, fuming."

Holly suppressed a shiver. "Butler fuming is not something I want to see up close." She had already faced Butler's wrath once on this trip already. Once was definitely enough.

Momentary surprise flitted across Holly's face when she felt Artemis's thin, bony fingers clasp her shoulder. "Then don't get too close," he said. His voice contained an unusual level of concern that made her look over at him without thinking. He was closer than she expected.

"A distraction is all we need," he reminded her. "I wish there had been an LEP jumpsuit in that lockup. If you were invisible to man _and_ machine, I would be more comfortable with this."

Holly didn't move for a moment, distracted. These words were sounding a bit odd coming from Artemis. Had he said, 'If you had an LEP jumpsuit, then we would be in a much better position' or even 'If you were invisible to man _and _machine, this maneuver would be quite a bit less dangerous' it would have seemed to amount to little more than the usual sort of commentary Artemis made on the status of the progress of a mission.

Perhaps it had been accidental, but the way he'd phrased it made it sound as though she was someone who it was Artemis's responsibility to take care of. Holly felt a flicker of irritation.

Strangely, she found herself flashing back what seemed like an age ago, when they had gone to Minerva Paradizo's chateau to save Nº1. Back then, Artemis had demonstrated his unquestionable faith in her abilities by a show of rather lack of concern as she had played the decoy as per his strategy by allowing herself to get captured. Or at least she had a feeling that was what he would probably say if she had pointed this out.

This was certainly a switch. Holly could only suppose that it was yet another result of her being trapped in this youthful body. She wasn't an officer anymore, but someone it was Artemis's duty to look after. Like he suddenly fancied himself her older brother, or father, or, possibly –

Holly sensed that now was probably the best time to get going, before she could allow herself to start thinking in that direction again, and she summoned her magic by turning her head away from Artemis's, so that he wouldn't catch a glimpse of her expression, whatever it was.

When she turned back to him again, she was invisible.

"Don't worry, Artemis," she said. The boy may have been directing their movements, but she needed to start taking charge herself a bit more and better act like the adult she was, so he wouldn't keep treating her like a child. No way she was going to let Julius down. "I have been on missions before. You are not the only smart one in the souk."

Her reassuring words apparently did not have the desired effect.

"All the more reason to be careful," said Artemis warningly, and Holly frowned slightly, nettled when she realized her mention of 'other smart people' seemed to have made him think of his own younger self instead. Just typical.

He went on, and Holly was amused by the almost sullen, childish quality in his voice now, "I wish there'd been a set of wings in the terminal. What sort of lockup doesn't have wings?"

Holly grinned suddenly, though of course Artemis couldn't see it. As she got up and headed toward the exit, activating the rear hatch as she did so, she said, happy at a chance to use something Commander Root had once said to her, "Potluck. We got what we got."

Holly climbed back up onto the balcony landing, striding through the old, abandoned shop and down the steps, carefully navigating her way out through the old dingy doorway in the dye-spattered wall. As she did so, Artemis's words drifted back to her once again.

"_I would be more comfortable with this."_

It was just as she had been afraid of, being treated like the unreliable adolescent girl she felt like. It was hard to take, the condescending protectiveness of the words, irritating as a flare of dust in her eyes.

So Holly wondered why it was, as she crossed the bustling, crowded courtyard, the heat of the evening sun beating down on the top of her headscarf, her lips were curled in the faintest of smiles.

* * *

><p>AN: A longer chapter than last time. The next couple of chapters are going to be pretty short, though. I was thinking about just combining them, but I think I'll keep them the way they are, and try to post them fairly close together instead.

Lol, the 'pronounce you' joke – back when I posted chapter 5, I'd forgotten I'd made reference to that here. (I'm glad I got to work it in after all, heh.)

Anyway, just a couple technical notes you're free to skip, as always:

I'm not sure if anyone would have noticed this, but the balcony thing gave me a world of trouble, lol. The description in TTP isn't very clear, so I didn't know whether it made more sense for them to set up and enter the pod from below, or from above. Above seemed like it would be more difficult to pull off, especially for Artemis, but if it was near enough to the ground to enter from below, couldn't someone run into it by accident? And I couldn't find a single image of the souk in Fez where I could see a balcony that could be used for the purpose Artemis and Holly use it for... So I decided to set it up this way, since it better suited my purposes later. If you're trying to imagine it and just finding it awkward and unbelievable... please ignore it.

The other thing I'm adding as I'm reposting this chapter (with only very minor changes) is something I wanted to comment on before, but didn't because I'm trying to keep these author's notes short as possible... That's that first scene. I know, it seems an odd one to include, especially since Holly hasn't actually had any meaningful interaction with Jayjay. But since they all refer to the lemur as 'Jayjay' quite a lot later, that information needed to be communicated, and it just felt off to just summarize it. So you can see my problem with this fanfiction, lol.

Anyway, thank you so much for all the reviews last chapter! I always look forward to hearing what you have to say, so if you like, please tell me what you think so far, and (kindly phrased) constructive criticism is always welcome. (:

Posted 11/22/11


	15. Every Step of the Way

Disclaimer: The characters, much of the dialogue, and sadly, even the plot are not mine; they all belong to Eoin Colfer.

Pages: 211 – 212, 215 – 216

Chapter 14: Every Step of the Way

Holly stalked, invisible, through the crowded, noisy souk like a ghost, her insubstantial form weaving in and out through the throngs of workers and tourists. However, her vibrating frame was still solid enough that if she so much as brushed even one of the unsuspecting Mud Men he was sure to notice. So Holly stayed attentive enough to what she was doing so as not to jostle any of the many pumping arms and shoulders of the workers either bending to dunk the animal skins in the dyes or turning to stack the leathers up to dry in the dying heat of the day as she went about her less-than-meritorious task.

Like probably most teens who found themselves skulking around densely packed work sites, casually tossing remote-dischargeable explosives amidst the work going on, specifically right into the wide, invitingly unguarded vats of liquid dye, Holly felt nervous. Or, more accurately, her stomach was clenched so tight with anxiety she had the distinct sense she was carrying a chunk of granite around inside her.

Holly may have had the edge over most juvenile delinquents considering that, while she was in her act of sabotage, she could make herself invisible – surely the nightmare of any parent or intermediary school disciplinary enforcer if there ever was one – but the typical trouble-making adolescent didn't have the added worry of criminal masterminds and huge, martial arts-expert manservants staking out the place, who would probably not only aim to put a hasty end to her criminal extracurricular activities, but wouldn't hesitate to grab her and stuff her in a car trunk somewhere for the second time in as many days.

Holly dumped an extra helping of the mining blaster buttons, one among many of the resources they had lifted from the Tara lockup, right in front of the window where Butler was situated before she made her way around to the far corner of the courtyard, and let the last few buttons of her supply fall into the liquid of a nearby vat with minuscule _plish plish plish_es. A moment later Holly backed up to the edge, out of the usual pathway worn out by the constant daily activity of the crowds mulling about, and quickly scanned the teeming environment with a trained soldier's eye to assess the situation.

Stealing explosives, then planting said stolen explosives right in the middle of a Mud Man city in an especially heavy-trafficked area. Had she still been at the academy, Holly would have been so suspended.

Holly stood in the shadows, studying the scene. Snatches of young Artemis and Damon Kronski's conversation drifted across the courtyard to her; from what she could tell, the doctor was really getting under the boy's skin. Ah-temis, hm? What an interesting name.

Holly almost smiled, but stopped, forcing herself to focus. The last thing she needed was something else other than the fact that the equipment she was carrying excepting her one Neutrino was basically nil to make her feel less like an operative performing an important duty in the course of fulfilling her mission than some puerile kid pulling a prank.

To be perfectly honest, now that Holly was standing out here so completely exposed she was finding Artemis's lamentation over there not being a suit or wings in the terminal to be quite a bit less funny now. She had little more than her shield for protection and, despite its name, it felt like a rather flimsy defense at the moment.

Holly's eyes moved constantly over the area, every sense on full alert. If this had been an ordinary mission, she would usually have had Foaly in her ear to rely on, to make certain she steered clear of possible dangers and kept on track in carrying out the mission. Without him, she realized she felt as off-kilter as a video gamer turning off the map feature of a particularly confusing stretch of territory. Holly was finding out the hard way that when one was deprived of her personal all-seeing eye and left feeling virtually blind, confidence tended to suddenly be in proportionally short supply.

Well, maybe it was just as well. Confidence was ignorance, so Foaly had once said. ...In which case, she wasn't feeling very ignorant at the moment, at least in that sense.

Though Foaly wasn't there, at that moment someone did speak to her in very much the same way, like her own personal computer implanted in her brain to analyze and feed her with important information.

"Kronski is opening the cage," said Artemis, his voice clear through the tiny mike they had also taken from the lockup set in her ear. Unlike the communicators from Mulch's pack, this set translated voice patterns, so her friend sounded like himself, and not some machine-zombie hybrid. "Get ready to blow the buttons."

Holly couldn't help but smile slightly. Well, not completely blind.

"All set," she answered. "I'm at the northwest corner if Jayjay tries to run."

"I see you on the filter." A second later, his order came. While not robotic, the tone was still cool, detached – the calming, certain voice of a natural-born commander. "Detonate at will."

Holly moved forward, hauling herself into an empty vat she had identified in an earlier sweep of the area as an adequate hiding place. She briefly turned, peering over the lip at the large man in the camouflage suit.

Holly's eyes flickered to Jayjay. The little lemur was out of the cage and Kronski had a hold of him. Now was the time.

Ducking down so no one would be able to see her, Holly let down her shield so she would have the precision of movement to be able to work the detonator. She spent barely a second navigating the menus, then, in response to the machine's single, emotionless question, _'Detonate?'_ she punched 'yes.'

Holly was not prepared for the blast of sound that assaulted her already sensitive elven hearing. She could feel the sudden tumult in her entire body. The cracking booms of the explosions, the gush of hot liquid shooting over a dozen feet into the air, the panicked yelling and screams of the workers and merchants – all of it swam together in a wall of noise that reverberated all around her inside the shallow vat.

Holly clamped her hands over her ears, grimacing, and though she felt something prick her fingers through the headscarf, she barely noticed, too occupied trying to block out the overpowering maelstrom of sound outside.

The noise was incredible. No wonder the humans were screaming – this had to be something like trying to wait out a bombing inside a trench in the middle of a war zone. However, Holly heard amidst the cries of fear some shouts of awe as though the chaos was something beautiful, and a few angry curses over what this excitement was doing to the merchants' carefully, beautifully dyed skins.

By now, Holly had pretty much lost track of what was going on outside the vat as far as their operation went. Though Holly had arranged the buttons so it would be Butler's and not her own view that was obstructed, the violence of the storm of flying dye was more than she had expected.

However, the explosions were beginning to die away now. If all was going according to plan, Mulch would have already gotten Jayjay away from Kronski and be well on his way back to their hidden shuttle. If not, there wasn't much she could do unless Artemis contacted her with further directions.

Holly slowly pulled her hands away from her ears, listening to the sound of swearing in more than one language, waiting for Artemis to tell her what had happened and what her next action should be.

Holly's ears were still ringing in the aftermath of the explosions, so it took her a moment to register the tiny, crackling snaps of pain against her auricle. Pulling back the scarf enough to remove the mike, she examined it carefully, and she saw a spark flicker on its surface.

Holly suddenly heard a voice emanating from the bud though and she jammed it back in in time to hear Artemis's voice again. Broken and split in the middle with sounds of white static, the most she could make out of the terse message was _"A – ort – A – "_

Perhaps she was imagining it, but Holly thought she detected a distinct note of urgency to his tones.

"What was that?" she asked anxiously, then reported, "The noise must have overloaded the circuits. I think my receiver's been damaged."

Holly waited for a response, but she could only hear more static, then several harsh cracks like something being violently broken before all went abruptly quiet.

"Artemis?" said Holly tentatively into the silence. "Artemis, are you there?"

No answer.

A tingling chill like an ice snake slithered down her back, as though swallowing her spine. So much for her all-seeing eye.

Holly pulled out the ear mike and stared at it as though hoping it would suddenly start working again, but it was totally dead. Not so much as a spark.

Holly bit her lip hard, frowning in concentration. Without contact with Artemis, she had no way of knowing if everything had gone as it was supposed to, and she ought to just wait until the coast was clear, or if something had gone wrong and she needed to take immediate action.

Pocketing the bud to see if Artemis could repair it later, Holly tried to think. First of all, she needed to get out of this vat. She would guess she had just enough magic for one more shielded trip back across the souk. Of course, she could get out and just try to appear like an ordinary girl caught out playing where she wasn't supposed to, hoping no one took too close a look at her face, but unfortunately, that would be fairly risky and it would be even more of a problem if either little Artemis or Butler spotted and recognized her.

Better go shielded then. Now was the time to be cautious; no one should know she was here, so all she had to do was wait a bit, then sneak back to their hiding place. She would just give it another minute or so, then –

Holly froze as at that exact moment a shadow fell over the vat. Holly started to turn, ready to play the innocent-little-girl-wandered-off-from-home act, but felt a wave of ice cold horror clench her heart as, out of the corner of her vision, she recognized the outline of the hulking figure above her.

Holly's hand shot for her Neutrino, but she never had a chance. Even if her adolescent body, which had not gone through any of the LEP training that had helped her become the officer she was, had not slowed her down, this Butler was in peak physical condition as he had yet to suffer that near-fatal shot from Jon Spiro's henchman that had robbed him of much of his former almost inhuman physical ability. As good as her reflexes were, Holly didn't think they had ever been a match for Butler's when he was at the top of his game, and certainly not when he had the jump on her.

Before she could bring her weapon around, Holly felt a coarse blanket all around her, and for a moment she couldn't breathe as it pressed up against her face and into her mouth.

Panic seized control of her limbs and she lashed out wildly, kicking every which way she could reach, clawing feverishly at the material as claustrophobia whited out all rational thought. She was like a desperate wild animal, out of control.

But Butler might as well have been made of stone for all the good her efforts did. Calmly, he bound her ankles and wrapped her forearms together behind her back with such efficiency despite her struggles that, even driven mad with terror, a part of her was still sane enough to acknowledge just the slightest bit of admiration. From the beginning, Butler had never failed to impress her with his skill and professionalism.

Next, Butler quickly confiscated her gun, wrenching it so easily from her grasp that Holly had an image of him thinking to himself, _Like taking candy from baby_. Then, shifting the blanket around in such a way to ensure his captive would be able to breathe, the enormous manservant hefted her casually over his shoulder, like a well-practiced hunter with the carcass of his prize animal, and strode swiftly away without a sound.

Holly's breathing was fast and shallow. This couldn't be happening. This wasn't how things were supposed to go.

Holly forced herself to close her eyes, to think. She tried to remember something from her training with the LEP. There was a simple exercise every officer was told to put to use whenever he found himself in a situation of considerable stress that necessitated unimpeded thought and judgment. Holly concentrated on evening out the expansion and contraction of her lungs, moderating her intake of air. Her mind cleared just a bit.

_Artemis_, she thought. _Artemis will come up with with something._

Yet Holly found she was having trouble summoning much in the way of hope. This was Artemis's study all over again, when Butler had showed up where he wasn't supposed to and drugged them both. For some reason, Artemis always seemed one step behind on this trip, and that was more frightening than anything else so far.

But even if she could have counted on her friend to be in top form for working out his strategies, if she was evaluating the situation fairly Holly had to realize even Artemis may be helpless given this particular development. Her accomplice wasn't with her to pull off a miracle in his irritating way this time, the way he had conjured an ally out of thin air. Even if he somehow convinced Mulch to help again this time, which would be a feat in and of itself, what could they hope to do against a fully-fit, fully-armed Butler?

There has to be some way, she told herself insistently. She hadn't broken them into a high security lockup and gotten them all that equipment using her exclusive knowledge as a LEP officer for nothing. And Artemis _was_ a genius.

_But you're forgetting. Butler's working for a genius too._

Holly felt a prickle of sweat slide down her cheek from her temple as the heat from her own body and the evening heat of the setting sun began to build up within the blanket.

No, now was not the time to start falling apart. Holly's closed eyes tightened further, brow furrowing as she channeled her thoughts, taking control.

A moment later, Holly's eyes opened. Her face had smoothed, the lines of worry faded to be replaced by an expression so intense with determination it seemed set in marble.

No, she decided, it didn't matter if Artemis could save her or not. Even if she did look like a child, she was a professional; she did not need him to look after her. Even if Holly did wind up dead or as some kind of twisted lab specimen for little Artemis to poke and prod at his leisure at the end of all this, it wouldn't happen because she went along like some docile sheep to the slaughter, because she had chosen to wait benignly for rescue. Maybe little Artemis would get what he wanted out of her, but she would show him that fairies weren't so easy to conquer and beat into submission as the cute little winged people in his fairy tales.

Whether she was an adult or an adolescent, it didn't matter. As long as there was an Artemis Fowl in the world who continued to engage in his unsavory business ventures, and treated her and everyone else as though their well-being and lives were more than tolerable sacrifices in the course of enacting his grand schemes, Holly for one would always continue to fight him every step of the way.

* * *

><p>AN: Oh, I so wanted to call this chapter 'alien abduction,' but I didn't have the nerve...

Lol, anyway, it's getting a little redundant to say this I know, but this chapter turned out to be a bit of a headache. I looked over it originally and thought it was about ready, but then reading it again I found it sort of bland... I ended up pretty much completely rewriting a lot of the first part.

I still hope to post the next chapter within the next few days, because this chapter and chapter 15 sort of go together, but since this grew out so much longer than I anticipated it may not happen quite that fast, especially if fifteen turns out to need a lot more work than I expect, like with this one. (Not to mention I have at least one exam next week which I really need to get started studying for already, heh.)

Another thing, one of you asked a question I wanted to answer here, since I can't reply the usual way anyway and I imagine a lot of you may be asking the same thing, as I've been a bit on the vague side. About whether this fanfiction is A/H... Well, yes and no. (How's that for clarity? (; ) What I mean is, when I see 'A/H' in a summary, I generally expect that Artemis and Holly are going to get together at some point, which they obviously aren't in this story, since I intend to stay true to what actually happened in TTP as well as consistent with what we have seen as far as TAC (The Atlantis Complex).

However! Even though in the original book the A/H section was pretty much over and done with after Artemis confessed the lie (being only mentioned a bit here and there afterward), the main focus of this fic _is_ the A/H aspect of the story. So in that sense this is very much A/H and it will continue to reflect that, even if it's not apparent in every chapter. I think there's more to work with there than you might think. (;

Anyway, thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who reviewed last chapter! I'm so happy to hear anyone's been enjoying what I've written enough to keep reading it, and it means a lot to hear from you. So please feel free to leave your comments/questions/advice/critiques, if you like. (:

Posted 12/1/11


	16. The Vanished Future

Disclaimer: The characters, much of the dialogue, and sadly, even the plot are not mine; they all belong to Eoin Colfer.

Pages: –

Chapter 15: The Vanished Future

In the confines of the constrictive blanket and her limbs tightly bound, Holly felt about as endowed with means of escape as an earthworm. However, even worms could still move, and so Holly shifted her attention to carefully wiggling in her restraints from her place atop Butler's shoulder.

Far from the desperate, wild thrashing of before, this time she was careful to control the movement, trying to be discreet enough so as not to alarm the bodyguard. Holly moved cautiously, slowly twisting her head all around and rolling her shoulders, hoping that, if he noticed, he might pass it off as his captive just trying to arrange herself in a slightly more comfortable position. It took at least a minute or two, but finally Holly succeeded in pushing the flopping edge of the blanket free of her head, though she had to keep the bunched up mass partially pinned to her shoulder to keep it from tumbling back down.

Holly's eyes fell on the souk, now some distance away, though the speckled, dirty walls were still visible through the crowds of busy tourists and shop owners.

Holly knew she could have tried screaming for help at this point. Certainly she could at least get a second or two off before Butler put a stop to it by either covering her mouth forcibly or putting yet another hypodermic dart in her.

However, Holly honestly doubted anyone would dare stand up against the towering monster of a man on behalf of a stranger, even if that stranger did appear to be a little girl, and she doubted even more if it would do any good if they tried. By the time the right authorities got here, Butler would be long gone and, considering she was actually a long-thought fantastical species from another time, she would probably be in just as much trouble getting caught by the police as Butler. Besides, she couldn't risk Butler sedating her again even by trying – she needed her voice unimpeded and to be fully conscious if she was going to implement her admittedly simple plan.

Butler stopped walking.

Holly's ears had stopped ringing from the earlier cacophony enough to just make out among the babble of voices and shuffling of feet the sound of tapping buttons somewhere in the vicinity of Butler's hand – Contacting little Artemis to tell him 'got the creature' or something similar, no doubt. Charming.

The pause took barely a second before Butler was off again.

Holly used the opportunity to turn her head around as far as she could manage, keeping the blanket held back with the side of her face. She could just see the outline of Butler's sharp cheekbone, but his eye was just out of sight around his head.

Holly tried to crane her neck a little further, but it was no good. If only Butler would turn his head just a tad more –

He did. Just slightly, probably in the course of scanning his surroundings for hostiles or prying eyes, but enough that Holly could see the white corner of his eye.

Without turning away, Holly twitched her head slightly and, as she had hoped, the movement drew Butler's gaze, instinct to make sure the prisoner was still secure taking over.

It only lasted for a fraction of a second, but that was enough as, the moment his cold blue eyes met her mismatched ones, she seized her chance.

"_Butler,"_ she said, voice laced with magic, _"Put me down."_

Butler's limbs immediately seized up, but amazingly, he kept on walking.

Butler had wrenched his gaze away from hers, but of course by now it was too late. Her words were already worming their way into his consciousness, shutting out everything else.

"_Stop, Butler,"_ commanded Holly. _"Set me down and cut my bonds."_

Butler's gait slowed considerably, yet still he pressed on. Holly winced as she felt his arm tighten around her as he strained against the spell.

_Only – Butler – _she thought with a grimace. Butler was the only person she had seen able to resist the _mesmer_ like this. The bulky bodyguard was going to either suffocate her or snap her in two if she didn't do something. However, Holly was afraid to press the hypnotic power any further, lest she cause Butler to have a heart attack right on the spot. Even disregarding the whole time paradox, changing-the-future issue, she couldn't bear to do anything that might result in the injury or death of her large friend. She might be able to add a few more layers and safely push a bit harder, but...

While Holly hesitated, a sudden, loud shout cut into her concentration.

"Hey, what you think you are doing?" said a man in heavily accented English, followed by several curses in French, then Arabic.

Butler finally came to a halt, though it seemed his momentum was still carrying him forward and he twisted sideways with a grunt.

Holly's entire body tensed as she felt herself slipping, instinctively wanting to grab hold of something, but made helpless thanks to the bindings on her arms and legs. She tumbled off Butler's massive shoulder and all the air was knocked from her lungs as she landed hard on her back, her arms pinned beneath her. The blanket fell in a cascade of heavy, rough material back over her head.

"Sorry about that," she heard Butler say gruffly, and she could sense her spell had been broken.

Butler picked her up again, this time holding her under his arm like a football. She felt an enormous hand reach under the blanket and clamp down over her mouth.

No way she would break free of Butler like this; she needed to conserve her energy and wait for another opportunity. She'd been close that time. And she had succeeded in _mesmerizing_ Butler once before back right before the Goblin uprising had broken out, so she knew it could be done.

After only the briefest interval, Holly felt the blanket being pulled off her. It wasn't until the hot, itchy thing was gone that she realized just how uncomfortable it had been. Relief was immediate, her whole body suddenly about ten degrees cooler.

It also helped that apparently they had moved into the shade now. Even now in the middle of the evening, the heat was merciless. A quick glance told Holly that the bodyguard had moved off into a deserted sort of alleyway behind one of the older buildings for privacy.

Holly's eyes flickered up to her enormous captor, who was now kneeling over her, one hand probably about twice the size of her entire face still over her mouth. His form was so huge it seemed to block out the fading daylight.

Holly stared right back into his familiar dark blue eyes, glaring back with everything she possessed. Butler returned her gaze steadily, his eyes flat and cold. If she had been able to speak, she could have tried to _mesmerize_ him again, but of course, Butler had apparently figured that out.

Holly maintained her defiant expression, despite the fact that inside she found herself quailing. The terror of having this man for an enemy once again was greater than she could have imagined. This was the same bodyguard she had met so many years ago, who had drugged her and brought her to Fowl Manor on the orders of a twelve-year-old Artemis Fowl. A man who had once obtained victory over a troll and could not only certainly break her in two without the least bit of effort, but would do it too without the slightest hesitation if little Artemis gave the order. Even in this heat, Holly felt herself go cold staring into those eyes.

And yet, just for the barest fraction of a second, in those hard eyes she thought she saw a flicker of something. The barest trace of pity.

But she knew she must have imagined it because the next moment Butler had pulled out a roll of duct tape and fixed a strip over her mouth.

"No more funny business out of you," he said in his deep base voice.

Holly tried to glare at him some more, but he didn't look at her again. Instead, he hoisted her up by the scruff of the neck and stuffed her unceremoniously into a duffel bag he had dragged out from behind a nearby rubbish bin, and she felt herself lifted up above the ground as Butler hauled the strap of the bag over his shoulder. She fell against his steel-hard muscles to be carried at his side like an assortment of hardware.

The trapped heat inside the duffel was, if possible, worse than it had been inside the blanket. Butler had left the zipper a little open so she would still be able to breathe, but sweat poured down Holly's face and each breath seemed to take a massive effort, so stifling was the air that had already begun to taste stale.

They had moved far away from the souk by now and the horrid smell of the vats of pigeon droppings, but Holly didn't have time to be glad as the stench of the droppings was simply replaced with the smell of various animals, the donkeys and goats and who-knew what else, as well as her own sweat. By now her shoulders and arms had begun to ache from the awkward position of having them forced behind her back for so long, and the bonds on her ankles chafed as she shifted restlessly against them.

Worst of all though was probably the stupid piece of tape, which burned and itched like mad, made all the worse by the sweat she could feel building up behind it.

Holly's brain began to feel feverish. The heat was so overpowering, and she could feel another bout of claustrophobia creeping just around the edges of her mind. A swirl of nausea and vertigo disoriented her and she felt faint.

But she had to keep a clear head. To fly into another panic would just be wasting energy she was sure to need later, and she must not be sedated.

Artemis isn't here, she reminded herself, so I will have to fend for herself. She would have to start doing her own thinking again for a change.

Yes, all she had to do was think. Now, what would Artemis do if he was here?

* * *

><p>Holly's second feeble plan worked no better than the first, not that she expected it to.<p>

Trapped as she was, she couldn't hope to move, but when Butler set the bag down to do a quick check his prisoner was still in the bag, Holly saw an opportunity and decided to try putting up her shield. She thought there might be a chance that, seeing his captive having apparently vanished, the bodyguard would panic and run off to retrieve her, thinking he would catch her before she got too far if he acted quickly enough. Meanwhile, that might give her the opportunity to slip off for real and get a hold of a tool to free her arms and legs.

In Holly's defense, it might have worked on a less with-it guard, but Butler was as cool and collected as they came. When his eyes fell on the empty duffel, he simply reached down into the space to feel if his captured fairy was still there.

Holly had only felt his hand against her shoulder for a second before it was jerked back, the high-speed vibration of her shield making it hard to keep a grip for long. However, that didn't change the fact that she was still bound and unable to move away so long as Butler was right there, and shielding wouldn't protect her from the ever-hovering threat of a knockout dart.

If she'd had more magic, Holly could have stayed shielded until her bonds and outer clothing shook to pieces (modesty was a luxury she couldn't afford at the moment), but she didn't have nearly enough for that without a shimmer suit to reduce the amount of magic needed for shielding. However, it wasn't as though she would have ever even been able to hope to compete with Butler in a game of cat-and-mouse, even if she hadn't been restrained, so maybe it was just as well.

"Listen, little alien or fairy or whatever you are," Butler said very calmly, "you might as well do yourself a favor and stop with the games already."

Holly felt just a bit of a chill, but she was almost used to it by now, and so she let down her shield, knowing full well it was pointless. This wasn't working, and she needed to save her magic.

Holly heaved from the effort of the shield, breathing hard through her nose and blinking rapidly to prevent sweat running down into her eyes.

She turned her head to glare up at Butler, but she knew the effect was probably ruined by the way her eyelids fluttered both from the heat and exhaustion. She was so low on juice that shielding even for that brief time had taken its toll.

Butler stared at her a moment, then reached down and tore off her headscarf in one swift motion, setting it aside. Holly was glad for this as her head felt immediately cooler, but somehow she doubted the bodyguard had done it to be charitable.

As Holly laid on her side inside the duffel bag, side still rising and falling rapidly from her earlier exertion, she wondered what little Artemis had planned for her. Would he really study her like a test subject to learn more about her race, or would he simply use her to provide irrefutable evidence of the existence of fairies to the world at large? Or both? Or perhaps he would try to use her to ransom gold from the People yet again.

Butler held out his phone in front of him. Holly stared back at the glowing red eye, and she was suddenly desperate to get away. However, she was utterly helpless to do anything more than watch as she heard the tiny digital imitation of a shutter click, and a moment later Butler had closed up the bag again, leaving her the small breathing hole as before as they set off.

As fairies and especially LEP operatives, there were few things as ingrained into her people as a fear of Mud Men cameras, recorders – anything that the humans could use to expose their existence. Even if such things were largely dismissed, they were considered an intolerable risk. So perhaps it was that one digital photo more than anything else that finally awakened Holly to the true reality of the situation.

As they went, the full force of what was happening slowly at last began to dawn on Holly; she was trapped and time continued to grow steadily, irreversibly shorter – like the creeping trickle of sand in an hourglass prison that would soon pour over her head and suffocate her.

Holly had been captured. Now, after thousands of years of secrecy, all fairy civilization may very well wind up exposed. All those vague fears that had clouded her will and mind before and even after she had decided to make this trip, that had made her so hesitant to help Artemis in the first place in enacting such a drastic scheme, here the worries were, all being realized to the most ghastly extent she could imagine.

Perhaps the future she knew was already vanishing – vanishing, just the way the world had while she was fighting for her life on Hybras, opting to move on without her. Only this time the new world would not be a better one, with the triumphant return of a long-lost family of fairies, but a world of war and destruction. All because of her.

A wave of sickness was spreading through her, a dark, all-consuming nausea that had nothing to do with the heat and the lining of the bag closing in around her. They were walls of another kind that were encasing her now.

For the first time since she had fired on her own commander to save him, but destroyed him instead, and run to save Artemis, but did not reach him in time, Holly realized that she really had really failed in everything she had set out to do. She had not been able to bring Jayjay back to the present to save Artemis's mother and prevent the Spelltropy outbreak; she had not kept a low profile so as not to mess with the events of history; she had not even succeeded in taking Artemis back to his own time, to deliver him safely back to where his parents and ever faithful bodyguard would still forever be waiting for him...

Holly closed her eyes, and her entire body fell limp with the tremendous weight of this knowledge. Her lungs felt like they were being crushed, her brain growing numb and languid under the pressure.

But a moment later, her eyes slid open slowly, staring at the inside of the rough, dark material of the duffel, its lining digging into her side.

If all that was true, she could not be allowed the luxury of giving in to despair and self-recrimination. If she had the strength to beat herself up, she should use it instead to fix the mess she had made – That was what Julius would say if he was here.

However, as she glared at the tiny of hole of her dark prison, she knew determination alone wasn't bringing her any closer to a solution, a way out.

_If only_ –

She stopped herself. Holly had already decided it was, in all probability, too late at this point. Impossible. There wasn't anything even he could do.

But all the same, Holly let her eyes drift closed again, her thoughts still pushing in that direction, uncooperative as always.

It seemed impossible. But then again, he had done it before. He made the impossible possible.

If only, she thought. If only Artemis would come up with one of his stupidly complicated, ingenious strategies. A reality-defying, unthinkable plan that would solve everything, and put an end to this before it had turned irretrievably into the darkest nightmare of her life.

* * *

><p>AN: Hey, I reached the 60,000-word mark. (: The next one is 100,000 I guess; that's a long way off, though...

So yeah, thank you so much for the reviews last chapter! Hope to hear from you, as always. I think the next chapter is going to need some work, so I need motivation...! (;

Posted 12/6/11


	17. Second Wind

Disclaimer: The characters, much of the dialogue, and sadly, even the plot are not mine; they all belong to Eoin Colfer.

Pages: 217 – 220

Chapter 16: Second Wind

To Holly, trapped inside the constrictive dark duffel, it seemed like an age before Butler finally stopped again. For perhaps a minute, he was as still as the architecture around them, and Holly could feel the tense muscle in his side through the material.

Just as Holly was beginning to wonder if Butler was waiting to cross a street or to meet up with his charge or some such thing, Butler started moving again, slipping silently forward. A moment later he took a single, fluid step upward, as one might if they were making to ascend a staircase.

The sense that they were very suddenly in a completely different environment was immediate. Strangely, the first thing Holly noticed was not the sudden faraway mutedness of all the raucous murmuring of the activity of the crowd going about their business, as though Butler had suddenly taken her behind a glass wall, but the smell.

The powerful odors of the souk and the city of Fez were suddenly gone, replaced by a much cleaner scent. An air freshener? Another smell under the cover of the first, more subtle, reached her too. This new smell that mingled in with the other was somehow familiar to Holly, but she could not quite place it.

As Holly tried to remember, Butler set her down carefully and then sat himself down beside the bag. She turned her attention to trying to figure out where she was.

Perhaps she was in one of the newer buildings that stood amid the old in this city, one with all the modern conveniences. It would certainly explain why it was so much cooler here than outside; perhaps this was where Butler had agreed to meet with his master. Of course it would be modern – Artemis Fowl didn't subject himself to heat and disagreeable odors unless absolutely forced to.

However, Holly was distracted again by the nagging scent. She was sure she knew it from somewhere. And she was also sure that behind the fog in her mind blocking the hazy memory, she recalled something vaguely unpleasant about it.

Holly's tired form suddenly went taut, and she felt Butler tense as well, as though to shoot her a silent warning, threatening her to stay still. However, the way her stomach lurched made it hard, and if not for the hot, uncomfortable piece of tape over her mouth preventing her making a sound, Holly probably couldn't have stopped herself from gagging audibly.

At the same time Holly felt a gentle vibration from the floor beneath her and the purring hum of an engine reached her ears. So that meant they must be in a vehicle of some kind.

Confusion spiraled in Holly's head with the nausea that had nothing to do with motion sickness as the wheels started to turn and they took off. This vehicle couldn't belong to little Artemis, the hideous smell made that much obvious.

Whatever else the pure evil little brat did, he didn't use the skins of animals for decoration.

For an instant, Holly flashed back to when she had been taken and held prisoner aboard the stealth ore ship of Opal Koboi, the lunatic pixie who had made a bid for world domination before Holly and Artemis had helped put an end to it. Opal had lavished her ship with every available luxury, including upholstering her seats with animal furs.

"_As I told you, I am human now. And that is what humans do, skin animals for their own comfort."_ So Opal had said.

Holly had been forced to sit on the grisly product of the murders for hours before she and Artemis had finally been brought to the Eleven Wonders theme park, the site on which Opal had meant to see her two enemies slaughtered. The smell of that fur, while faint, had been permanently seared into Holly's memory, and she was almost surprised it had taken her so long to identify it.

Now, Holly was a prisoner again as she had been back then, but this time her kidnapper was Artemis instead of Opal. Despite the circumstances, Holly had felt some measure of peace back then. Even though she had felt sick to think that she might die leaving the world to Opal's mercy without having accomplished a single thing to stop her, Holly had still maintained a strong glow of determination, of hope of finding someway out of the seemingly impossible situation. Beyond that, Holly had also been able to take just a bit of comfort in the fact that she might be seeing her mother and lost commander again shortly.

However, perhaps it was again because of this body, which in part had been deprived of the discipline and the professionalism that allowed her to accept the possibility of death, or perhaps it was because this time she found herself totally alone, but Holly couldn't seem to reach that state of balance and calm, no matter how she reached for it. Like trying to walk across a tightrope without having ever had the training.

Holly was slightly relieved when the sound of voices drifting back to her from the front of the vehicle drew her attention from the swirl of oppressive thoughts that threatened to choke her. Her better-than-average elven hearing allowed Holly to make out some of what was being said.

"Nice seats," said one of the voices conversationally. The words sounded muffled to Holly's ears, partly because of the duffel, and possibly partly because she guessed there was at least one set of seats standing between them, but she could still hear well enough to pick up the slight sarcastic note to the comment.

It was a higher, more child-like voice than she was used to, but Holly was certain that had definitely been little Artemis.

There was apparently no reply, but Holly could hear another voice too from time to time, though it spoke less distinctly. Holly didn't know who the other one might be; her best guess was that he was another one of Artemis's subordinates like Butler, only someone who Holly had never met. Perhaps a certified expert in some particular area of biology, a specialist in the study and dissection of newly discovered species.

While Holly worked to suppress her suddenly all-too-creative imagination, she heard Butler quietly unzip the bag a bit more. Holly didn't know why he did, but she was grateful as she felt the cool, air-conditioned air against her face, and it was enough to clear her head a little.

Holly strained harder to hear the two up front, trying to get more clues as to where she was going and what was happening. In kidnapping scenes in action novels, wasn't there some rule that when the hero was being taken somewhere, they were allowed to glean some information from the villain telling one of his inquisitive lackeys about his plans? But apparently Artemis wasn't inclined to follow the rules of literary structure in inadvertently letting his captive in on secrets she wasn't supposed to know as he had gone silent, the short, one-sided chat already over.

The one other voice that Holly had picked out, an older male near as Holly could tell, still continued to mutter, and it took all of Holly's focus to make out even portions of the disjointed phrases.

"In my _hands_..." he was saying, a despairing quality to his voice. "Had it right in my... all that _money_, and for what...? Just to have my lovely prize stolen right from under my nose... Not fair, it's not _fair_... A _hundred thousand euros_..."

A feeling like she had just stepped off the edge of an ice cliff swept over Holly. A cold, swooping sensation in her stomach, an electric prickling on the back of her neck that had nothing to do with the beads of sweat that had solidified there. Because she suddenly knew who little Artemis was sitting with up front in this shroud of butchered animals, who this vehicle belonged to, and exactly what little Artemis planned to do with her.

* * *

><p>Before long the vehicle rolled smoothly to a stop and the moment it did, Butler silently zipped the duffel back up and she felt him on the move again, as smooth and stealthy as a panther.<p>

As soon as they were out of the cool air of the vehicle, Holly felt the heat building up inside the small space again, sweat breaking out on her forehead. Hadn't the sun gone down yet? She would have been panting if not for the tape over her mouth, which by now was itching and stinging like a swarm of fire ants, so she had to satisfy her desperate need for clearer air by pressing her nose up close to the hole Butler had left for her, breathing deeply.

Luckily, this part of the journey did not last long. Butler must have entered a cooler environment again because Holly soon felt the temperature outside drop back down to a more comfortable level, though the bag remained stiflingly warm as she suspected the jet black material trapped heat as effectively as any greenhouse. The sound of the clicking of shoes on linoleum and the dull echo Holly's keen hearing picked up made her think they had entered some kind of building.

Holly felt queasy with nerves as she suddenly remembered that Nº1 had not yet unraveled the ancient magic that gave fairies nausea when entering a Mud Man dwelling uninvited. However, as the symptoms had not surfaced, she could only assume that the fact that evil-Artemis had apparently been allowed inside extended as an invitation to his kidnap-victim too.

Holly remembered her friend Trouble Kelp had once been captured and forced to stay inside a dwelling he had not been invited into, but that had differed in the fact that the kidnapper had not owned the house or even been invited into it. She would have been in real trouble if this had happened as that had.

Getting violently sick and physically unable to escape the magical source of it had to be one of the worst experiences that could be thrust upon a fairy. Her claustrophobia was already causing her to feel sick enough as it was without Frond punishing her for what she couldn't control too.

Holly closed her eyes, concentrating on just breathing in and out. This place was cooler than being out in direct sunlight, but unlike in the car, Butler did not open the duffel and her brow was still slick with sweat.

Again Butler sat down with Holly in her bag in front of him, going into statue-mode.

After several minutes of complete silence and not so much as a twitch from Butler, Holly began to wish they would start moving again, or that someone would speak. At least something would be happening. But there was nothing outside this tiny place on which she could direct her focus, as though during her time being cut off from the outside world it had ceased to exist altogether.

Holly felt her mind beginning to slip back, the restlessness and whirl of thoughts leaving her teetering on the border of panic once again. She tried with all her power to shut out the sensation of the heavy, abrasive material of the duffel pressing in on her on all sides, the way her legs had begun to feel cramped and sore from being bent inward toward her chest for so long, the maddening restriction of not being able to use her hands or even move them from behind her back, the tape burning against her mouth.

Holly kept her eyes resolutely closed. However, every bit of it still invaded her thoughts, every discomfort a clear, sharp presence in her mind. She felt sicker now than she had been when they were moving, the overwhelming sense of vertigo and nausea somehow much worse than the brief spasms she had been getting repeatedly earlier with the movement of the bag and the shaking of the vehicle floor.

She knew the strategy that they must be using on her, of course. Making the prisoner wait an indefinite period of time to discover her fate, allowing her to imagine all the while what might be in store – it was a classic tactic of interrogators, and one she should have been able to withstand since she was able to recognize it.

But even though she knew it in her head, she could still feel it slowly driving her mad as her treacherous thoughts did exactly what her tormentors no doubt hoped, turning to the possibilities of what was going to happen to her.

Most of it was probably fairly predictable; the leader of the Extinctionists must intend to put her on exhibition as a strange and exotic beast for all the Extinctionists to see, and then they would kill her. But would they torture her for information about the rest of the fairy people before that? Would they cut her open to see how her insides were different from a Mud Man's?

Holly's stomach was twisting in knots and her sweat felt cold against her face. This was how she was going to spend the last few hours of her life, confined, unable to move or speak. She would be helpless to do a single thing but die in the end, trapped in a breathless, closed space so far from the sky, all dreams and hopes for the future cut short. Like her mother.

_Don't succumb,_ Holly ordered herself. She was trained to deal with situations such as this, to not allow these kinds of tricks to get to her.

But of course, Holly hadn't had that training yet. Not in this body.

* * *

><p><em>How much longer can it be?<em> Holly wondered. She had been counting the seconds, the minutes for some time now, so she knew at least twenty minutes had passed with no movement from anyone or anything. But she was certain her count must have been off by a fair margin, that she must have been mentally speaking one number after the next at a rate abnormally slow, because she'd never known twenty minutes to last so long. She did not think she could last another twenty, let alone an hour, or two hours – or an entire day. Sometimes interrogators left their prisoners for days or weeks on end. But surely Kronski would be too impatient for that. Surely.

Tension and exhaustion continuously ate away at her strength. She felt a droplet of sweat run down over her closed eyelid and get caught in her eyelashes. It itched terribly and she wanted to reach up and wipe it away, but Holly's hands were still bound behind her back, straining uselessly against the bonds.

Panic had been bubbling in her stomach for some time now, but now it turned to a wild broil as it rose up, pressing against her tight, military self-discipline, a panic even greater than the one that had threatened to surface when she was in the trunk of the Bentley with Artemis, or when Butler had first captured her in the souk.

What was happening? Why didn't little Artemis just hand her over already? What could they be waiting for?

_I have to try to get out,_ she thought. _Right now, or there won't be another chance. _She couldn't last another twenty minutes.

Her reason told her now was definitely not the time, with her hands and feet bound, her mouth taped, and Butler sitting right there, not to mention in such a weakened physical state and low on magic. What she needed now was to have patience, to wait until a possible opportunity arose – but she could not stop the overwhelming sense of absolute, almost animal-like terror beginning to rise inside her, to take hold of her.

Once Artemis gave her to Kronski, she knew she would die in some horrible way after being gawked at by humans, having betrayed the existence of her race. The sense of impending doom was like the steady march of an approaching army, unstoppable. Above all else she did not want to shuffle to her death with her head bowed in meek acceptance, without having even tried to fight her way out, and it was that more than anything that pressed her irresistibly, stupidly into action.

Holly suddenly kicked out against the confines of the duffel, as though she could tear apart the fabric walls containing her with brute force alone, breathing hard through her nose as in vain she tried desperately to sit up using only the muscles in her stomach so she could press her head against the zipper to widen the hole.

But of course, her professional side, which would never have made such a mistake, knew it was useless before she'd even started moving. Holly had barely finished twisting onto her back to try to get her forehead against the zipper when something like two heavy iron clamps slammed down on her, one on her abdomen, one on her legs. Her own arms dug into her back as she struggled helplessly against the huge hands, like two four-hundred-pound barbells pinning her to the ground, but the more she fought, the more weight seemed to come down on her, crushing her.

Terror tried to seize her again and for a moment her neck arched back, eyes wild, her mind as blank as that of a caught rabbit, with no thought other than to thrash wildly and fight until she could no more.

_Stop, _said a very calm voice from somewhere in the back of her mind. _Stop struggling._ And this time, despite her terrified, inexperienced adolescent body, she listened to rationality. Though it took every bit of willpower she possessed and though she thought she might pass out from lack of air, which only made the instinct to fight that much stronger, Holly forced her body to at least imitate the appearance of calm.

Holly held her breath and waited, desperate with fear and pain, but with determination and sanity once again.

After about a minute of so, Butler's grip relaxed. Though she still felt the weight of his giant, bear-like hands, kept at the ready lest she start struggling again, her lungs were free now at least.

Holly concentrated on breathing again. In, out, in, out. But, as Butler still had one hand on her stomach, effectively covering her entire abdomen with just his palm alone, thinking about her breathing only seemed to draw her attention to yet another restraint.

_Calm down,_ she told herself again. _Calm. You can make it through._ She kept up the words in a stream of encouragement, using everything she could think of she had ever heard as an officer, both from her own many real-life experiences and from instructional vids she had been shown during classes and training, until all the words began to blur together so that it was only the tone of them that mattered, continuing ever on in measured calm.

If little Artemis was trying to play mind games with her, she was playing right into his hands – would be continuing to play into his hands – if she went into another frenzy. But still her instincts were telling her to fight to the last breath. She tried to ease the tension in her muscles through concentration and force of will, but every flickering thought about what awaited her that passed through her head would only stiffen them again.

Holly felt as though she was consuming all the air in the bag and she tentatively moved her nose up next to the opening as she had before, though afraid of Butler coming down on her again.

Holly wondered briefly why Butler hadn't sedated her already after her multiple attempts to escape. Perhaps he was simply utterly confident he could keep her trapped without resorting to that, and he was probably right. However, this was about as much thought as Holly could squeeze out of her feverish brain.

Holly's eyes remained closed her. Her arms behind her back were so sore, her mouth burned with itching. She needed to think more clearly than this, to get control. She wasn't an animal, or even a ordinary civilian, but a ranked officer of the LEP. She did not have to fall prey to her instincts, that's what Commander Root would tell her. It was a disgrace to her organization and her position to behave this way.

The heat and stale air and tiny space clouded everything, and Holly turned her full attention again to attaining a complete state of calm. Even if she could see no way out at the moment, if she was smart she would use this time as a sort of reprieve to rest a bit, instead of letting herself fall to pieces from this psychological manipulation. Both her mind and body could certainly use a break and she would be in better condition to grab a chance for escape if one presented itself.

Holly concentrated on trying to force her racing, muddled thoughts into a meditative state, to make her brain soothingly blank and empty, or at the very least get herself to think about something other than the situation she was in.

_Just imagine you're far away from here,_ she murmured silently to herself, the tone of her thoughts low, as though trying to gently coax a pet into sleep.

She summoned an image of a wide, clear blue sky, of herself soaring high above the surface of the earth, Foaly's latest wing rig model strapped to her back, arms outstretched like a bird's and a cool breeze against her face. She corralled her thoughts, trying to slip into that place she loved, to not just see it, but feel it, that place completely open on every side of her that allowed her to be free of absolutely everything, just like that last day of the Kraken Watch mission.

But that felt like an age ago now. And so, even though Holly pictured the scene as clearly as she could, wishing to lose herself in the memory, the approach refused to work. Far from being able to temporarily forget about her surroundings, Holly was suddenly filled with a longing for the open sky, making the stiffness in her legs and burning of her bonds only that much more unbearable.

Though Holly had her skittish instincts in check for now, boredom, discomfort, and anxiety still felt as though they were swirling together and congealing in her veins, paralyzing her, trying to eat away at any last vestige of willpower and hope, the smell of her own sweat continuing to fill her nostrils.

Unable to stop herself, Holly's eyes flickered open and upon seeing only darkness, she closed them again. _Please_, she thought. _Please._

Before she could stamp out the wretched, useless plea, a face briefly flashed behind her eyelids, but it was not her mother's face this time, as it had been in the Bentley.

Holly's breathing steadied very slightly. She could not say that what brought on the momentary sense of calm was the belief that her human friend would be able to do something, to pull off the miraculous. In all likelihood, even he had no power here, stuck in the past with so few resources, and relying on him to rescue her would only make it all that much harder when she realized what she had already known, that it was beyond even him.

Perhaps that hopelessness was only a side effect of where she was, part of the panic that came with the claustrophobia that interfered with her rational thought processes. Perhaps it was only a cowardly self-protectiveness that made her so set on the reality that he could do nothing, because so often a crushed hope was worse than no hope at all. But even as that possibility occurred to her, it did not much matter as she still did not feel strong enough to allow her thoughts to turn in that direction, to allow herself to hope.

She thought rather that it was the reminder that she was not utterly alone on this trip that had brought that barest flicker of warmth to her chest. However, by now it was already fading. She needed something else to get her out of this place, even if it was just mentally, even if it only lasted her a little while.

Holly knew what direction her mind most wanted to turn, what thoughts she would dwell on if she had the choice, something that recently could hold her attention even more than thoughts of flying. But she had been staunchly resisting the pull thus far, as she had been since early that morning at least a century ago, since she had sat atop the hood of that stolen car.

How hard she had been trying not to think about it, her connection to her human friend beyond their occasional collusion to accomplish common interests as a team. To minimize the pain of the treachery, it was easier to try think of him as a friend who was more like an acquaintance, who she had interacted with often and so knew well enough to speak easily with, but ultimately little more than a superficial relationship underlying it, the both of them always wary of the other and driven only by shared goals.

She knew what she really wanted was to revert back to how they had been before Hybras. She wanted so much to be only galled and angered as he manipulated and prodded her where he wanted her to go, as she had been when he had held back information during the operation in the Spiro Needle in order to force her to do something he knew very well went against her beliefs at a crucial moment, rather than hurt and betrayed by someone who she had come to trust. A sudden, unexpected blow from behind hurt so much more than a blow she had been prepared for.

Holly had set up a blockade in her mind that would debar any aberrant thoughts of her friend, to allow nothing to leak through beyond what she had ever thought of him before this trip. She must not think like that, she had known, without even needing to put that knowledge into definitive words in her mind. But right now, none of that seemed to matter very much.

The rough material pressed against her face, Butler's enormous, powerful hand was still on her stomach, her insides were writhing and coiling like snakes as she thought of the humiliating and painful end that would soon come to meet her. She made up her mind.

Her eyes still closed, Holly tentatively opened the door to those thoughts yet again, the one she had slammed the wall down on the moment Artemis told her what he had done. She was not giving in or changing her mind, only using the unwelcome feelings and desires of this ridiculous adolescent mind that was responsible for weakening her to draw some thread of comfort and peace where she could.

The door creaked open slowly, bit by bit, and she found herself thinking first of the connection between them. She knew his intelligence made him someone on who she could rely more than anyone else after they had lost three years from the world together, and she realized that since Hybras there was a delusional fantasy playing somewhere in her subconscious, a delusion that he more than anyone would always be waiting for her, even if no one else was, because even if she was no longer needed in her world, to him at least she would always be one of his most important playing pieces...

The strength of the thoughts was stronger than Holly expected. She found herself wanting to delve deeper, to push the gratifying images provided by her memories further than their shared looks of elation when they had returned from Hybras alive with the demons they had saved in tow, the way his thin lips would curl slightly in amusement in that irritating way when he knew he was saying something that would annoy her, the serious look that would come over his face mirrored in her own as they worked together to riddle out the logistics of one of his strategies.

Holly hesitated a moment, however, holding back the thoughts before they could run away with her. She opened her eyes to stare hard at the inside of the duffel. Allowing herself to pursue this avenue of reflection so completely flew in the face of everything she had been so forcibly trying to deny all along. Like deliberately breaking a childhood oath for the first time, or forsaking a pledge of loyalty. There was a wrongness about it, a certain guilt, as though she were taking an illicit drug to ease some kind of pain even while she knew the relief to be temporary at best.

However, as a soldier, it had to be right for her to use whatever resources were available to her, to use whatever means necessary to carry her through. She so needed something on which she could focus, that would help her shut out everything else and bolster her failing mental strength. If her end was to come soon, getting through this right now was all that was of concern to her in the world.

Holly slowly relaxed, letting her eyes fall gently closed, her mind to drift freely on the uplifting breeze of a different kind of open sky. She pushed her imagination further, opening the gate, and almost without even trying her mind began to construct an impossible, yet relieving scenario of rescue.

Holly had never been much one for daydreams. She had always preferred to act and get things done to accomplish her goals rather than sit around making herself crazy by imagining what it would be like to have them fulfilled, even when she had been an adolescent for real. But after all the experiences they had been through, the pictures seemed to fold out vividly of their own accord, as though such a scene had always existed in her mind but had refused to be realized until now.

She could see Artemis contriving some elaborate scheme, a scheme that not only got her out, but fixed the damage done by her exposure to humans other than Butler and little Artemis. The details of the plan remained vague and out of focus, that section being part of Artemis's creativity and so beyond her to invent, but the most important moments were sharp and clear behind her eyes. She could see him stepping in at the last possible minute, as annoyingly melodramatic as ever, as in his conquering of Jon Spiro.

"_Oh, so you decided to come for me after all,"_ said her own imaginary voice in an offhand, almost scathing tone. _"What an honor. I was beginning to think you'd forgotten I was here."_

The imaginary Artemis smiled back slightly, a bit of a mischievous glint in his eye as he replied, _"Of course I came. I need you too, after all."_

She could have almost laughed at that, that sort of indirect reply to her own statement from back at Rathdown Park. Like he would ever say anything like that, even as a joke.

Yet she could imagine it, somehow. The scene continued, his expression turning slightly awkward as he added as an excuse, as though afraid to be caught saying something too nice, _"Yes – I couldn't get back to our time without you, Holly." _Yet even so, as he said it she saw him continue to have an almost gentle expression, a face filled with relief that she was all right, even if he would never admit it aloud.

"_But this isn't over yet,"_ he would say, switching quickly to business mode as ever. _"There is still work to do."_

"_Okay,"_ she replied firmly, her expression every bit as determined as his. _"Then what next?"_

Without thinking, Holly breathed a sort of sigh, almost dreamily. The fact that no air came out of her taped mouth suddenly reawakened her to her surroundings and her predicament.

Holly found that Butler had taken his hand off her, and she realized too she could hear the voices of little Artemis and the Extinctionist leader she'd seen at the souk, Doctor Damon Kronski. It was finally happening now then.

Strangely enough, though physically she was still every bit as sore all over and her limbs just as heavy with exhaustion, her mind felt refreshed.

Thoughts as sharp as a blade once again, she stared hard at the tiny hole by the zipper of the bag, and for the first time she really believed Artemis probably would come up with something to get her out. Whether it would work or not with only Mulch as an ally and up against Kronski along with his entire organization was anyone's guess, but they would all do their best and she was more than ready to give Kronski and the demon-Artemis brat from this side of eight years as hard a time as she could manage if she got the chance.

_Better watch out, little Ah-temis,_ she thought, using Kronski's accented mis-pronunciation of Artemis's name she had overheard earlier, testing the range of movement of her arms and legs experimentally once again. _Because it looks like your captive just got her second wind._

* * *

><p>AN: Well, this chapter started out at a reasonable length, but just grew and grew as I tried to improve it until it turned into this... Which actually creates other problems (I know angst is kind of the MO of the fanfiction, but I don't like for it to drag on and on like this. Unfortunately, there wasn't really a way I could think of to break it up... And it makes the ending no matter what it is more anticlimactic...)

Lol, but I guess I'll hold back from complaining too much this time since I am done with the last of my exams now, yay.

Anyway, thanks so much for reviewing! Hope to hear from you. (:

Posted 12/19/11


	18. Trade Off

Disclaimer: The characters, much of the dialogue, and sadly, even the plot are not mine; they all belong to Eoin Colfer.

Pages: 220 – 224

Chapter 17: Trade-Off

Holly laid on her back in the duffel, wishing her wrists were bound in front of her rather behind her back, as she would have been decidedly more comfortable. However, now that something was actually happening, she wasn't about to complain as she concentrated instead on listening to little Artemis and Kronski's conversation.

"You have no idea what it's been like for me, Ah-temis," Kronski said piteously. "Hounded from country to country because of my beliefs, like some common criminal. And now that I have _finally _found somewhere to call home – now that I have persuaded the committee to meet here – I lose my trial animal. That lemur was the centerpiece of the entire conference."

_Somebody get me a box of tissues, _thought Holly.

However, this little speech of Kronski's made her realize something she had missed before back in the vehicle, while she had been distracted by the horror of what was happening. So, Kronski _had _lost the lemur. Even though something had obviously gone wrong with Artemis's plan and she had been captured, the mission had at least had some measure of success in terms of its main goal: Mulch had managed to save Jayjay. That was one thing to be glad for.

However, Holly began to have a sneaking suspicion that even this had been part of little Artemis's plan. After all, if Kronski lost one animal, he would have no choice but to buy another. _Sly and devious as ever, I see._

"All is not lost, Doctor," Artemis was saying, in an oddly comforting tone that made Holly want to wretch. "I can provide you with something that will rejuvenate your society and make it globally relevant."

That 'something' being her, she supposed. Now that it was happening, Holly almost couldn't believe that he was actually selling her to this man. Strange that 'pure evil' could come in the form of a ten-year-old boy.

"What is this?" Holly heard Kronski say. "Photo manipulation?"

Artemis must be showing Kronski the digital image Butler had taken of her earlier, or so she guessed.

"No," said Artemis simply. "Genuine. This creature is real." He spoke using that tone Holly had come to know so well, the absolute, unshakable certainty that forced even the most skeptical of recipients to at least do a double-take. The little liar was telling the truth in this case, though.

However, Kronski did still seem a bit dubious, at least superficially. But he was distracted when, much to his annoyance, Artemis indicated the Extinctionist president would have to pay even more for this new specimen on top of what he had paid for the lemur. Of course, Holly knew the man should have seen that coming – Artemis wouldn't go to all this trouble unless he had something more to gain.

When Kronski asked for the price, Holly was a bit shocked when Artemis replied immediately, "You pay five million euros." He added, making it clear that there would be no haggling, "Nonnegotiable." That was easily fifty times the money he had gotten for Jayjay, Holly thought. It made the other transaction seem like almost nothing.

_Five million. Wow. I'm flattered, Ah-temis,_ she thought sarcastically. So it was really true, there really _was_ no limit to the depths this Artemis could sink. It was amazing how this ten-year-old could control the ebb and flow of this conference as he was even in this setting of cutthroat, underworld business dealings, as he went on to make his careful threats implying what his bodyguard would do if Kronski tried to cheat him. She could see here how, despite his age, he really was like any other Mud Man crime lord; he might even more intimidating and ruthless than average to make up for what he lacked in years and physical stature.

Holly wondered how on earth this boy could ever grow up into the Artemis she knew now. The fourteen-year-old Artemis may have been no saint and he had lied to her, but even so he had still done many good, even selfless things for others. It was hard to see how someone this cold could ever turn over a new leaf, even partially, to change so much in such a short time.

Kronski's view on the ten-year-old was a bit different. After a moment of silence once it appeared that the negotiations were finished, Kronski having agreed he would pay if he could be satisfied 'the creature' was the genuine article, the doctor said, with something like nostalgia in his voice, "You ever think it strange, Ah-temis, how a kid like you winds up going eyeball to eyeball with an old crook like me?"

Artemis hesitated. "I don't understand the question," he said, though Holly imagined admitting it aloud probably cost him. The know-it-all.

Sounding like he was enjoying himself tremendously, in reply Kronski laughed heartily and clapped his hands together like a grade-schooler being given a slice of birthday cake. "It delights me, Ah-temis," he said simply, still chuckling, "that a boy like you exists. It makes my day."

Holly could feel disgust rise inside her. Having people as vile as he was of all ages in the world – yes, what a treat indeed.

Holly's eyes narrowed and she wrinkled her nose as all manner of coldly furious thoughts coiled around her mind like the appendages of some thorny plant. She so wished she had her LEP badge and an entire team from Haven behind her right now so she could lock these two up in a tiny dark cell somewhere, where they belonged.

"Now," said Kronski, and he stopped laughing abruptly, in an instant completely serious, almost to the point of threatening, "how soon can I inspect the creature?"

Holly felt Butler seize the bag and climb suddenly to his feet, making absolutely no sound as he did so. Her body was suddenly crammed against his rock-hard side again, and this time in response she made sure to slacken every muscle in her body, so he wouldn't feel the need to close his arm around her like a vice again.

"Immediately," said Artemis.

"Good." Holly heard Kronski clap his hands again. "Well, text your man to come hither. Let's say it takes him thirty minutes to get here, another ten to clear security..."

Hmm. Evidently Kronski did not know they were there already; she would expect nothing less from Butler and Artemis. Holly had no idea how the magic of invitation-only for fairies to enter buildings worked, but now she was even more grateful for whatever had happened that had counted as an invitation for the fairy in the bag. Maybe Artemis and his bodyguard were so inseparable that an invitation to Artemis counted as an invitation to Butler and by extension the 'creature' he'd brought with him or... Well, it didn't matter really. She was inside Kronski's building and she wasn't throwing up, that was what counted.

"I said immediately," Artemis repeated smoothly, then clicked his fingers in a way Holly found a very obnoxious, like a trainer calling for his dog, or royalty summoning his subjects.

Butler moved, followed by a sort of high-pitched squeak of alarm from the doctor, as though he'd just spotted a mouse. He got over it quickly, but he seemed rather annoyed with himself.

_Now, there's the dignity one would expect from the leader of an organization that goes around murdering rare animals for sport, _Holly thought wryly, wishing Artemis was there so they could share an eye-roll.

Kronski spent a minute figuring out how Butler had managed to get there, then remembered Holly. Or, as he put it, 'the merchandise.'

Holly was beyond caring about being referred to liked she was a shot raccoon caught raiding the chicken house or a leftover sack of metal shrapnel by this point, but she still had to be irritated by it a little, on principle.

Holly, still inside the duffel, was lifted up and placed on a hard surface. Three figures were standing around the bag according to what she was able to discern with her hearing. She thought she could just make out the heartbeat of each Mud Person there. The steady _Thud. Thud. Thud._ of Butler's, the excited _thump thump thump _of Kronski's, and the lighter thrum of little Artemis's, though it was even and steady like Butler's.

Holly felt her own heart rate speed up, knowing what was going happen. In a moment, the bag would open and she would be greeted by the sight of three Mud Men faces peering down at her like she was a new exotic dish they were about to eat.

Holly began to feel slightly queasy again. Even though she was still wearing the abaya dress over her one-piece, the idea of it made her feel exposed somehow, vulnerable. She was bound and unable to speak, a helpless object, a piece of property being observed for the purpose of being sold.

Kronski's breathing was hitched and almost labored as he anticipated getting his hands on the prize. In a moment, she would be completely at the man's mercy – It was an image dreadful enough to temper her sarcasm as well as her desire to escape the bag that so tightly enclosed her, despite the intense feelings of claustrophobia still tightening her stomach.

Before they opened the duffel, she heard Butler saying to the others in cautioning tones, "She has some kind of hypnotizing skills. I once met a guy in Laos who could put a whammy on you, but nothing like this. She tried it outside the souk and I nearly ran into a camel, so I taped her mouth."

It really was too bad he hadn't really run into a camel then, she thought, recovering herself a bit as she twisted her lips in annoyance against the stickiness holding them together. She really could have done without this irksome tape. Even without taking the _mesmer_'s usefulness as a weapon into consideration, she had a few choice words she would have liked to say to them all if she'd been able.

Butler continued, unaware of the elf's resentful thoughts as she stifled the simultaneous feeling of fear and desire to be snide that spun in her head as each tried to get control, making the stability of her mind tilt even more wildly than before, "Also, as we know, she can turn invisible. When I opened the bag at first, she wasn't there. I think her juice is running out though."

Ah, so he'd noticed that. Having magic powers wasn't much use if there wasn't enough magic to fuel them effectively. She supposed it didn't take knowledge of the supernatural to figure out that much, but it was still annoying.

"There could be more stunts," Butler warned, "who knows what tricks she has hidden in those pointed ears. Are you prepared to take that risk?"

Ironic; it wasn't really her pointed ears he needed to worry about.

Holly closed her eyes for a moment, the corners of her mouth twitching behind the tape. Deranged giddiness wasn't really much better of a state to be in than abject terror, although the former was certainly more enjoyable.

"Yes," said Kronski, breathing heavily in a way that sent goosebumps spiking up and down Holly's arms, underneath the layer of sweat. "Absolutely yes. Open the bag."

At the moment Holly honestly did not know whether she wanted to laugh uncontrollably or hiss or cry or scream. She could feel her heartbeat in her ears. It seemed the excess energy she had gained earlier might wind up only being used to express her anger or fear or demented amusement more fully if she didn't get control of it. She would have to channel it properly if it was to be of any good to her at all; she had to remained staid and watchful, to wait patiently.

_Just relax and take it,_ she told herself. For now.

Holly stared up as the bit of light streaming down on her forehead from the hole grew steadily wider as someone drew back the zipper, the sound like the buzzing of a hornet, so loud it echoed in the sudden quiet that had fallen over the room. She caught a flash of a small pale hand and the sleeve of a dark blue, custom-made suit as it finished pulling open the duffel and drew away.

Holly felt a blast of the cool air of the room on her face and neck, and the stuffy, stale air was suddenly fresh – though ruined somewhat by the smell of animal pelts again and a variety of artificial scents that also somehow managed to reek of dead animals.

Holly squinted at the bright light as her eyes adjusted, and for a moment she had an image of herself laying on her back on an operating table, strapped down, while Mud Man doctors in full scrubs leaned over her and shone bright lights in her face. At least dying at the hands of the Extinctionists meant that particular vision wouldn't be coming to pass. Hopefully.

An enormous man with white skin speckled with little brown splotches, dressed in a beige robe cinched around an ample waist of a kind Holly had thought only worn by women in this country, stared back at her. She could not see his eyes properly because they were concealed behind a pair of glasses with purple lenses; instead she saw her own worn and exhausted – but also defiant and resentful – features reflected back at her.

However, from what Holly could see, his eyes were now wide with surprise and morbid fascination as he took her in, eyes slowly roving over her entire frame before returning to her face.

Holly could not have expressed how much she loathed this man. Everything about him was malignant, disgusting, like the foulest beast one could imagine. His appearance, what he stood for, the hungry look in his eyes behind the purple lenses.

So when she saw out of the corner of her eye his hand moving toward her, she widened her eyes into a ferocious glare and every muscle in her face tightened, this being pretty much the only method of communication left to her. Her way of warning him not to do what he was obviously intending to do.

But Kronski apparently took no notice. There was a slack, wide-eyed look of wonder on his face that would have been cute on a child seeing an elephant or a tiger at the zoo for the first time, but was as repulsive on the doctor as everything else.

Holly fervently wished she could bite him as he slid his fingers over her forehead, feeling for himself that it was far too wide to belong to a Mud Man child of Holly's size, leaving trails in her mask of cool sweat, then moved a hand to fondle her pointed ear, pulling at it to see that it was real.

Kronski moved dazedly out of Holly's line of vision, and she caught sight of little Artemis standing a ways back from where the doctor had been blocking her view of the boy a moment before. She realized it was the first time she was seeing him up close during this trip to the past.

Artemis, however, did not look at her. Instead, his cold blue eyes stared right over where she was, apparently still fixed on Kronski, his expression placid.

A moment later Holly heard the gush of running water falling into a cup. This simple act had the unanticipated result of suddenly making Holly start mentally calling Kronski every rude word in every language she could think of as she suddenly realized that, on top of everything else, her throat felt like it was on fire. The doctor's adding insult to injury by acting like he was taunting her even if it was unintentional was only one more straw on the already impressive pile, and it was only so long before her back broke. Or she broke somebody else's.

"Five million at today's market price," said the doctor, like he had just stumbled across the deal of a lifetime. "You said five and we agreed. No upping the price now."

Little Artemis gave his trademark vampire smile with which Holly had become so familiar over the years.

"Five million. Plus expenses." Artemis closed his eyes, the self-satisfaction obvious on his ordinarily near-emotionless features.

Holly glowered at him from where she laid, wishing she could wipe that smug look off his face.

_I hope you're pleased with yourself, you little mud monster,_ she thought, _because you're really going to regret this someday._ This wasn't a threat so much as a fact. Unfortunately, she couldn't extract much satisfaction from it as she pictured the present Artemis driving dejectedly back to the shuttle in the darkness, realizing he had been thoroughly outmatched by his younger counterpart and completely at a loss as to what to do next.

The younger Artemis looked as though he was about to turn away then and move beyond where Holly would be able to continue to stare him down, but he stopped. For just an instant his cool blues eyes flickered down unexpectedly to meet her mismatched ones, one of which he could not know had once belonged to him.

Holly's glare hardened further, recalcitrant and accusatory, though she wasn't so deluded as to believe she could really exert any power over the imperturbable ten-year-old with a mere look. In fact, she fully expected him to leer, to provoke her as ever with that cold, inexorable smile as he reveled in his conquest even in the face of his opponent's displeasure.

However, she was in for a surprise as his smile slowly faded, and a flicker of annoyance flashed across his brow. He looked back at her and, inconceivably, for just a moment the expression in his dark fathomless eyes seemed almost to say, _"I won, you lost. There's no use trying to make me feel guilty about it now."_

Holly kept her own eyes locked with his. _You already feel guilty, _she wanted to say, though even she wasn't at all convinced whether it was true or not. _You feel sick with guilt without me ever saying a word, and I hope it eats you from the inside out._

Artemis's face was blank as he turned and walked away, lightly asking coolly of Kronski if the doctor would be so kind as to have the five million euros in diamonds delivered to him immediately. However, Holly had the distinct impression that the young boy did not look quite so smug anymore.

* * *

><p>AN: Hey, Merry Christmas! Or maybe I should say 'Happy Holidays'... (; I've always wanted to post something on Christmas day and call it a present, lol. (I had this chapter ready several days ago actually, but since the last one was so long I wanted to wait to allow more of a chance for people to read that one first.) Though you're probably all so busy you won't see it until afterward anyway, right? (;

Anyway, thanks for reviewing! I love hearing from you all, as always. (: I know things are a bit slow right now, but I hope I haven't chased anyone away, lol. Writing is so hard...! But being reminded people are actually reading this helps keep me from letting my guard down or getting lazy. (;

Posted 12/25/11


	19. Sweetener

Disclaimer: The characters, much of the dialogue, and sadly, even the plot are not mine; they all belong to Eoin Colfer.

Pages: –

Chapter 18: Sweetener

Kronski soon left to get the diamonds, leaving Holly with Butler as a guard. Young Artemis still remained, but opted to stand silently some ways off, beyond where the 'creature' could see him.

Butler looked down unblinkingly at the fairy in the bag, watching to make sure she didn't try to make a break for freedom; although, it was in all likelihood an unnecessary precaution as Holly doubted whether she would have had a ghost of a chance of escape even if they had all conveniently walked out and left her on her own. Her bonds were too tight, her body too weak.

Not that she was prepared to throw in the towel and declare little Artemis the winner; it was simply an honest, fair evaluation of her current position.

As she met his stare, Holly got a good look at the manservant's face for the first time since outside the souk. This time she noticed a certain tightness about his mouth, and a sort of odd flicker in the depths of his dark blue eyes.

Had she been seeing this man for the first time, or even the second time, Holly thought she probably would have lumped him in with Kronski's ilk. Ruthless, cruel, selfish – A typical thug-for-hire like any brutish Mud Man criminal that thought nothing of kidnapping a sentient being and handing that being over to a group that would exterminate it.

But Holly had known Butler for a long time, and she could see in his face even if the signs were only slight that he did not really want to do this. The distaste for what they were doing seemed almost unmistakable now that she was taking the time to notice.

Butler reached into the bag, lifting her out as easily as if she had been a fabric doll, and laid her gently on her side on the cool wood surface of the desk, next to the duffel.

Holly didn't struggle, accepting this sliver of kindness, glad to be finally out of the hot, awful space at last and given an unimpeded view of the room. A reception lounge of some kind by the looks of it, with the front desk she was lying on, the wall of decorations and interesting things to look at or read, and the plush couch a little ways away to give clients a comfortable wait. She was glad to be past being treated like a piece of luggage oblivious to everything, though of course that only meant she would soon be a sideshow freak for an organization run by a lunatic instead.

Butler continued to stand silently over her afterward, and she kept an eye on him, though only through the corner of her vision to be discreet as possible. No need to advertise the fact she still had a bit of fight in her, and was not yet dissolved into a pitiable creature of complete fear and despair as most kidnap victims probably would be by this point.

Young Artemis stood just beyond Butler, but Holly still couldn't see him behind the muscular mass of the giant bodyguard. She wondered if Butler had purposely chosen that particular spot to stand with that in mind, to better shield his charge in case 'the merchandise' tried something.

Idly, Holly found herself wishing that Butler would also remove the uncomfortable, burning strip of tape. However, of course that was out of the question. Butler did feel bad, she knew, but that wouldn't do her a jot of good, even if young Artemis hadn't been standing right there and even if she had been able to somehow communicate to the bodyguard her real situation.

For one thing, Butler's loyalty to Artemis came before everything else, including whether this was right or wrong. No matter what it was, he would always do whatever it took to give his master's schemes the best chance of success. But no doubt Butler would be certain of a trick if she tried to explain the whole 'being from the future' thing anyway.

Holly heard the squeak of wheels as Kronski returned, followed closely by three swarthy-skinned guards pushing a steel trolley loaded with a single heavy sack on the top tier. Based on the clinking sound coming from the bag every time the wheels hit a crack or irregularity in the woodgrain of the floor, it was easy to guess what it contained.

Kronski gestured to the guards to move over to where Holly was, and Artemis and Butler, the bodyguard picking up the Kevlar duffel in one swift movement, approached the diamonds. Butler, Holly noticed, took the time to size up Kronski's guards on the way.

Artemis opened the sack and carefully withdrew a stone. He spent a minute inspecting it, then replaced it in the bag, apparently satisfied that it was genuine.

Butler hefted the sack of diamonds and placed it in the duffel, much the way he had loaded Holly into the same exact bag earlier.

"It has been a pleasure doing business with you, Doctor," said Artemis. The boy turned toward the exit, Butler right behind him.

"Hold on a second, little Ah-temis," said Kronski, frowning slightly. His expression was suspicious as he stared at young Artemis's back.

"Yes, Doctor?" replied Artemis impassively without turning around.

"Forgive me if I'm not _quite_ so trusting as all that." Kronski's voice was just short of antagonistic, hostility pushing against the forced false tones of civility, breaking them down. "You have swindled me out of a hundred thousand euros already, boy. Who's to say you aren't doing it again?"

"You have already verified the creature's authenticity yourself," said Artemis smoothly. "If you are not satisfied, then by all means examine it a second, or even a third time. The thing is all yours now, so you may do as you like. However, I am afraid my associate and I do not have time to waste. So if you will excuse us..."

"She seems real enough," Kronski admitted, ignoring the request of his ten-year-old business partner. "Those ears are certainly not latex. And the shape of its head, its whole body... Still, you understand if a part of me is still wondering about all this, Ah-temis. I am in a very delicate position right now, you understand."

Young Artemis was silent a moment. "Very well," he said finally, turning partway back around to look at Kronski over his shoulder. "I will give you something else other than my word that also supports what I have said. There is more to this creature than simply being non-human, apparently. This race also appears to possess, in addition to all the other talents Butler described earlier, highly advanced technology, more advanced than the human variety in fact, if truth be known."

Artemis gestured wordlessly to Butler, who stepped forward, the muscles around his mouth tight again. Reaching into the inside pocket of his suit jacket, the manservant withdrew the gleaming platinum handgun Holly had stolen from the Tara lockup.

Kronski's eyes bugged behind his violet glasses as soon as he saw it and he took a shaky step forward, trembling pudgy fingers outstretched.

"Butler was forced to disarm this creature earlier as it was carrying this weapon. The object appears to be some kind of stunning device with adjustable power settings."

_This just keeps getting better and better,_ thought Holly grimly as she watched Kronski take the tiny gun delicately and stare down at it in wonder, eyes still wide. Damon Kronski with advanced weaponry. What joy.

Alhough if she thought about it perhaps having her weapon here somewhere in the compound would give her a slightly better chance of escape should she discover a way out out of her bonds. Well, unless of course the Artemis from her time had already given her up as lost and so remote-destructed the inner workings of the device in order to keep little Artemis from getting a chance to study it. In which case, attempting to retrieve the gun would be an effort wasted.

Kronski just continued to stare at the weapon in wonder, turning it over and over to examine every inch of it.

Artemis's lip curled slightly in almost a sneer, but he didn't comment. Instead, he turned to Butler and said, "Well, let us go then. I hope you have fun with your new toys, Doctor."

Kronski waved vaguely at the two to get out as though they were bothering him, not taking his eyes off the Neutrino.

Holly's eyes flickered once again over the room she was in. She guessed again that this foyer was most likely meant for receiving guests, if this was a hotel or some other form of temporary living quarters, as she supposed. She noticed again how she was currently laying on the front desk, like some kind of special delivery FedEx package. However, these details seemed irrelevant next to all else the room contained.

Holly's stomach tightened convulsively into a knot and the sweat that had dried on her skin broke out anew as she realized that almost everything in the room was adorned with the pelt or body of some murdered animal. The fur-upholstered sofa, the bone standing lamp – An entire wall was even covered in photographs which took Holly a moment to realize were each in celebration of some species that had been hunted down and exterminated by the Extinctionists.

Holly wondered if soon her own stuffed body would decorate this very lounge, up with the mounted animal heads staring blankly at her from above the mantel. Or perhaps Kronski would want his five million dollar 'creature' for his own personal quarters.

Holly felt a shiver like an electric current spasm down her spine and she could feel her own sweat freeze against her skin as waves of cold pulsed through her.

She stared at the slowly retreating backs of the ten-year-old Artemis Fowl and Butler, suddenly realizing that, though admittedly young Artemis wasn't much safer a human to be held captive by than a deranged, bloodthirsty Extinctionist, Holly desperately did not want them to leave. She did not want to be left alone with this man and his people.

But though she stared hard at the shoulders of this smaller Artemis, willing him to stop, to somehow have a moment of hesitation and change his mind about all this, he did not once turn around. The door closed behind him and his hulking bodyguard with an ominous slam that rang like the sealing of a prison cell in the large, grotesque room.

That boy really is evil, Holly thought bitterly.

Kronski, meanwhile, took a final look at the weapon, then looked around as though trying to figure out what to do with it for now. Finally, he settled with laying it on top of the trolley.

He turned to Holly, smiling almost affably, though under the circumstances it came across as more of a leer.

"Well, my dear little guest," he said, clapping his hands, "welcome to my humble abode, the site of this year's prestigious Extinctionist conference. I do hope you'll enjoy your stay." He chuckled almost merrily. "Thanks to me, you're about to become world famous."

Holly refused to let her mounting fear show and concentrated on returning his smile with a glare, but by the time she'd summoned the expression, Kronski had turned away.

Holly felt a hand seize her roughly by the scruff of the neck of her abaya and next thing she knew she was staring into the black-brown eyes of one of the guards.

"What is this thing?" the man asked. "A little person?"

One enormous hand took hold of her face and wrenched her neck sharply to one side, seeming to study her ear, with as little hesitation as if his curiosity had been over an inanimate object, like a mannequin.

"_No!_" Kronski screamed suddenly, making the guard jump as the doctor flew over to them, moving with surprising speed for one of his bulk. When he spoke again, his tone had returned to normal, though a dangerous hint to it still remained.

"This is a very important, very expensive piece of merchandise, the heart of my entire show tomorrow night. So I ask you all to be gentle – _very_ gentle. Imagine this creature is a delicate piece of of china, a piece of china your very _life _depends on not breaking. Are we understanding one another?"

The guard nodded vigorously as did the other two, though they with less enthusiasm, as though they were more accustomed to their boss's outbursts. The first guard set Holly back on the desk, this time handling her like she was the Rosetta stone and he an archaeologist who had dedicated his life to the study of Egyptology.

Kronski stared down at Holly, his eyes unfocused behind the tinted lenses as he most likely daydreamed about what horrendous things he planned to do with his prize.

He blinked suddenly through, and was instantly more alert. He reached down and ran a thick finger across her cheek, a droplet of sweat clinging to the tip when he pulled it away. He stared at his finger a moment, frowning, the barest hint of disgust on his wide, flabby face. He rubbed the sweat between his fingers, as though he'd just touched something dirty, and his frown shifted to her as though it were somehow her fault she had been sweating bullets all day.

He seemed to think a minute, then nodded once to himself, muttering something to the guards that, despite Holly's sharp sense of hearing, she failed to catch and he gestured to the door.

As the guards swarmed around her, Holly stiffened slightly, but otherwise stayed still, reminding herself that escape was still impossible at the moment. If she was on her own, then it definitely was and would probably continue to be, right up to her execution. But perhaps...

She mentally shook her head slightly. No use thinking about that. If he came, he came, but there would be nothing she could do before that.

However, strangely, one thought rose above even this as she was stuffed (though delicately) into a cabinet-like space below the shelf of the silver trolley and felt herself being trundled along in yet another dark, cramped space that would have been any claustrophobic's nightmare.

_I do really hope I'll be able to get this awful tape off before I die._

* * *

><p>AN: Hee, thanks for reviewing everyone! :D It's the first post of the new year. Unfortunately I'm going to be starting school again before too long, and I'm expecting this semester to be a lot more difficult than the last, so posts may not come as fast. And I've been working on other writing projects as well... We'll see how it turns out.

Feel free to leave any comments/questions, I love to hear them. (:

Posted: 1/2/11


	20. Freeze and Store

Disclaimer: The characters, much of the dialogue, and sadly, even the plot are not mine; they all belong to Eoin Colfer.

Pages: 234 – 236

Chapter 19: Freeze and Store

Holly soon understood what Kronski's plan was to apparently solve the problem of his showcase creature being soaked to the bone in a layer of her own sweat.

When the trolley stopped moving, the guards opened the cabinet section and dragged her out and set her on the ground. Holly sucked in a sharp breath through her nose as she was hit with a blast of icy air and she made contact with the shockingly cold metal floor. She curled instinctively, trying to lift every part of her exposed skin away from direct contact with the frozen surface, though wasn't entirely successful.

Teeth chattering behind her sealed lips, she glanced quickly around her and soon found that her prison was to be a sort of storage freezer room. No doubt this was Kronski's strategy to stop her sweating and make her slightly more presentable – though now she could feel her sweat freezing in crystals on her skin, making her shiver that much more, the cold of the steel floor easily penetrating her abaya and sinking deep into her core.

Had the doctor had any brain at all, Holly thought irritably, he would have seen this was no way to treat an important piece of china. But of course from a purely practical standpoint, she had to admit a freezer did make a good prison, as the cold drained her energy almost as effectively as any drug and made the possibility of a breakout fairly remote.

Holly noticed one of the guards was holding what looked like a miniature, plastic chair, probably meant for a Mud Child, though that also made it about the right size for a fairy. He set it on the floor at the very back of the freezer, around a corner in a place mostly concealed from the main entrance.

One of the other guards lifted her off the icy floor and deftly cut her bonds, allowing Holly's arms to snap back around. Her shoulders had become so stiff she'd thought her arms might have forgotten how to move back where they were supposed to be.

Picking her limp form up together, the two guards carried her between them over to the chair, where the third guard was waiting. Promptly getting a hold of her untethered wrists again, the guard quickly cuffed both her hands to the arms of the small chair. Any form of freedom it seemed, however slight, was going to continue to elude her until the end of this.

She supposed she should be grateful that she was a bit more comfortable now than she'd been for the last hour and a half at least, though that was a sad thing to say as the chair was extremely hard and flat and not comfortable at all either for her pelvis or tail bone. If this was what Mud Men subjected their children to, it was little wonder that so many of them had back trouble later in life.

Holly had a flickering hope that the guards would leave her alone and go guard her by waiting outside the freezer door, but she wasn't too surprised to have no such luck. The three all stood around her, at least one keeping an eye on Holly at all times, while the other two watched the exit at the far end of the freezer room for signs of hostiles.

Holly took note of the fact that her Neutrino was still sitting where Kronski had left it, in plain sight atop the trolley used to transport Holly. It was less than ten feet away, but it might as well have been ten miles for all the good it did her. She had no hope of getting to it like this with the guards right there, and couldn't have wielded it properly anyway even if she'd managed it, secured as she was to this plastic chair, though perhaps she could have used it to cut the bonds off if she could do it without also sawing off her own hands by accident. She wasn't even certain it would still work anymore by now anyway, if the internal circuits had already been remote destructed already.

It wasn't long before Holly's fingers began to numb from the cold, and she had to suppress a shiver now and then. Her feet were still fine for the moment despite being right against the floor as luckily she was still wearing Artemis's loafers.

Cooked alive and frozen both in the same day – like leftovers from someone's last meal. Holly hoped the Extinctionists didn't eat her after they killed her; that would be an even more ignoble end than being stuffed and put over the mantle in Kronski's living room, though the former probably wouldn't last as long.

Holly was a bit consoled by the fact that the guards obviously didn't like the cold of the freezer any better than she did. Most were probably native to Fez after all, and so were used to a hot climate. They rubbed their arms and hands together and one guard, the guard who had manhandled Holly earlier and Holly got the impression must have less experience with Kronski than the other two, even stamped his feet every now and again.

Holly's gaze flickered about the room, searching for something, _anything_ that would help her form a plan of escape. However, any spark of inspiration escaped her, and she could do nothing but stare at the icy steel walls, from which such cold seemed to radiate off in sheets that made her shudder, and at the various frozen food items stacked up and arranged neatly around the space.

Instead, her gaze kept being drawn back to the row of chains hanging just beyond where the trolley had been parked nearby. Disgust and horror made her stomach churn at the sight of the slabs of various meats hanging from the chains frozen over with tiny icicles, like an assembly line of death. She realized it was only in a place like this that the true depths of Mud Man depravity could be understood.

As Holly sat in the frigid air, tied down and unable to move, stomach complaining that it needed to be fed even as nausea from looking at the meat rose up as well, her throat on fire from the need for water to replenish all that she'd lost earlier in the form of sweat, the tape across her mouth itching painfully, she tried to shut it all out, so she could stay on the lookout for any opportunity that might arise.

However, a part of her knew that the only way she was going to get out of this alive was if Artemis came to save her with one of his ingenious plans. The only question was if he would show up.

No... that wasn't right. It was not whether he was willing to come or not; rather, her being rescued hinged on whether the boy was able to come up with a feasible plan. If he came up with one, he would come no matter what the danger to himself, she was certain of it.

On the other hand, if he couldn't come up with anything that would even have a chance of working, that would be a different story. Even if he didn't want to leave one of his friends, his intellect would override his emotions to tell him not to waste either his own life or Mulch's. After all, Artemis still had a task to complete. He had an obligation to save his mother, and the wellbeing of his parents came before everything else.

It had occurred to Holly that, while Artemis wouldn't be able to get back to the future without her, not directly, there was still a way. After all, it was only eight years' difference. Now that he had Jayjay, all he had to do was spend those next few years keeping 'the antidote' safe, staying hidden from the world. Then, on the day that Holly Short and Artemis Fowl vanished from the world, the young-adult Artemis could go strolling up to the manor, explain the situation, and provide the cure for his mother. It would be a miserable and tedious existence until that day finally arrived certainly, and one Holly wouldn't envy in the least, but she knew Artemis could handle it if it was for his mother.

And yet, even to imagine such a bleak image for the future, her own horrible death and Artemis's continuing to exist as a friendless hermit...

_He will come up with a plan,_ Holly told herself firmly. This was Artemis Fowl she was talking about after all. Artemis always had a plan.

Of course, there was a third scenario. Perhaps Artemis would form a plan, but it wouldn't be one to save her. Maybe the most he would be able to come up with given his limited resources would be just enough to prevent the Extinctionists using her to reveal the existence of fairies to the world at large, and it would require her to make the ultimate sacrifice at the end.

She closed her mismatched eyes. Upon reflection, she knew that that would be something she could live with – if Artemis found a way to help her not betray the People, she could be satisfied with that kind of miracle.

Her lips quirked up behind the tape suddenly as a thought occurred to her.

_But,_ she thought wryly, _if worst does come to worst, he could always bring me back to life._

* * *

><p>And so, Holly spent the next while alternating between believing with absolute certainty that Artemis would definitely come up with something and someone would come breaking down the door to bust her out at any minute, and believing that there was not a single thing he could do, that he wouldn't come.<p>

The more time that passed, the more sure she became of the latter. She had gathered based on what Kronski had hinted at about his 'trial animal' and 'centerpiece of the conference' that they were going to wait for this big event held for the Extinctionists to finally kill her, in a mock trial setting perhaps of some kind, which would be happening tomorrow evening. Holly couldn't imagine even Artemis pulling off a rescue in front of a hundred rabid Extinctionists, so every minute that passed that drew them ever closer to the time the conference would begin, the more unlikely it seemed Artemis was going to show up.

But then again, Minerva Paradizo had managed to get hold of Nº1 in front of an entire audience of people at an opera and got away with no one besides Holly, Artemis, and Butler any the wiser. Artemis, Holly remembered, had been impressed with the performance, but hadn't seemed to think it was something he couldn't have pulled off himself.

Artemis could perhaps save Holly at the conference itself she supposed, provided he had enough of a distraction. But this situation had so many other factors that Minerva's hadn't, including the fact that they were all expecting her. Wouldn't it be better if he could get her before she was seen at all by any of the other Extinctionists?

Hours must have passed as she sat there, each second seeming to stretch to an eternity as the uncertainty of what was going to happen pressed down on her. The time dragged on and on without end, her joints all aching as the cold of the freezer sunk deeper and deeper into her innermost being. From time to time, the guards would leave only to be replaced by more guards, who watched her like a hawk. Some of them brought sandwiches which they ate with agonizing slowness and deliberation, as though taunting her while her own stomach rumbled in low tones.

Eventually though Holly forgot about the sharp hunger in her gut as her head dipped to her chest. The cold made her feel drowsy, sapping her strength. She was certain now that that really had been Kronski's true strategy in bringing her to this place.

Was the freezer cold enough that she would die here right where she sat if she were to fall asleep? Surely Kronski would not allow it intentionally, but of course he couldn't know how much fairies loathed the cold.

But maybe, her sluggish brain thought, it would be for the best if she did die now. It would have to be a better death than the one Kronski had in store for her certainly. Best to get it over with. It wouldn't matter then that Julius was dead, or her mother, or that she was responsible for betraying the entire fairy race to the humans, or that Artemis was not going to come for her...

* * *

><p>Holly awoke. Blearily, her eyes roved around the room as she tried to remember where she was, disoriented. Her eyelids were still so heavy, her entire body sore and aching, she felt almost like she was recovering from the effects of a hypodermic. Strange, she hadn't had this much trouble waking up in the morning in years. Not since after her training with the LEP anyway. It was almost like back when she was...<p>

And then it all came rushing back to her with a sudden jolt and she was suddenly very much wide awake.

_I'm at the Extinctionists' compound. I'm going to be executed._

Holly saw the guards standing around her chair, and recognized them as the same guards who had originally brought her into this ice prison what seemed like an age ago.

How much time had passed? Days? Weeks? Of course, she knew it hadn't been that long; time always seemed to pass at an exponentially slower rater when the prisoner was not allowed to do anything and/or in extreme discomfort of some form. Kronski himself had said at one point that the show was going to be 'tomorrow night,' which meant that she probably wouldn't be held here much longer than twenty-four hours before she was sent off to die.

However, Holly was sure that hours upon hours must have already passed by now, especially considering all the guard switches she'd seen earlier before she'd passed out. It was amazing she hadn't felt like she needed a restroom break in all that time, though she was so dehydrated maybe it was only to be expected. She was glad, as she thought being forced to use one of the Mud Men's repulsive indoor facilities would have to be the ultimate degradation, even beyond being stuffed as a trophy.

She felt a bit refreshed thanks to the nap. As sad as it was to spend what might turn out to be her last moments on this planet sleeping, she had needed the boost. At least she wouldn't miss her chance because she was too wiped out to seize it if one arose. Of course, if no opportunity did come, then it just meant she would be that much more awake and aware of things when her death came.

_I need to stop thinking like that. _What she needed to do was look for a way out. Never give up.

However, the tips of Holly's ears, as well as her nose, fingers, toes, arms, legs – in short, basically all her extremities, despite being covered with the dark material of the abaya she wore – were all frozen, not to mention how frozen her brain felt as she still hit a wall on ideas for escape. Only her lips were warm, thanks to the tape, which ironically felt rather like they were on fire for itching.

However, she did feel more alert mentally now that her drowsiness was gone, even if her body didn't feel fully functional in this climate. She closed her eyes again, reaching down into her innermost depths, searching for that strength she knew was there, even if it was harder to access in this body.

She opened her eyes again a moment later, and this time they held just those traces of defiance that so defined her. Yes, the strength was still there all right. She would never give up, not until the very end. And maybe not even then.

* * *

><p>By the time Kronski came striding into the freezer like he owned the place, which he probably did, Holly had managed to work herself almost entirely out of her earlier lethargic state. The cold was still numbing every part of her body, but it couldn't quite reach the burning determination in her chest. In fact, she was so recovered she found herself wishing to be able to do something to nettle the doctor a little with a bit of sass, but thanks to the tape she had not the freedom to do even that, so she settled with fixing the man with the most antagonistic scowl she could muster.<p>

The doctor, dressed in a purple suit and wearing his matching purple-lensed glasses as ever, with a tiger-fur cap perched atop his head to top it off, much to Holly's indignation showed all the signs of having just taken a shower a little bit ago. He had also freshened up in other ways besides, in contrast to Holly's having been frozen like a Popsicle to solve her sweating problem while her clothing irritated her skin, still itchy and uncomfortable as ever from all the previous day's activities. Holly seriously hoped that karma had something major in store for this man.

Kronski, meanwhile, spent a minute trying out the Neutrino handgun which he plucked right off where he'd left it on the trolley, and seemed delighted with the result.

Holly felt a mixture of disappointment and relief. Seeing a human like Kronski in possession of a fully operational fairy-made weapon was bound to be disquieting, but the fact it still worked also meant that Artemis hadn't destroyed it from the shuttle at this point, which may mean he hadn't totally given her up as a lost cause, at least not yet.

"My goodness. This is quite a toy," said Kronski, marveling as he examined the futuristic-weapon once again.

Holly just continued to glare daggers at the back of his head, continuing in the one and only hostile gesture she was able to make.

Kronski did not turn back to look at her right away. He stowed the weapon in his suit pocket, then abruptly brought his foot up, stamping it hard on the metal floor of the freezer. The deep, hollow sound of metal reverberating off metal filled her ears and she could feel the vibration beneath her numb feet, the tiny movement of the floor enough to send spasming pains all along her soles. By now the cold of the steel floor had long-since permeated Artemis's loafers and her formerly sweat-soaked socks.

"No tunneling out this time," said Kronski smugly, as though Holly had not already figured this out within the first hour of her captivity. "Not like at the souk."

Kronski did turn around then, a wide, leering smile on his face as he approached her. When he came to a stop in front of the tiny chair and his fairy prisoner, his enormous frame completely blocked her view of the exit, as well as much of the contents of the freezer.

Kronski did not seem the least bit deterred by Holly's glower. Instead, if the look on his own face was any indication, if anything he seemed pleased by her rebellious attitude. If he'd ever trained horses, Holly had no doubt breaking the horse would have probably been his favorite part.

"Do you speak English, creature?" he said, speaking slowly and clearly as though talking to someone either severely dimwitted or slightly deaf. "Do you know what I am saying to you?"

Holly rolled her eyes. Ironic that she was the one being treated like a moron when Kronski was interrogating someone whose mouth was covered with tape.

"And for good reason," said Kronski, as though they were holding a conversation rather than him simply talking to a gagged captive. He eyed the tape appreciatively as though it had been his idea. "We know all about your hypnotism tricks. And the invisibility."

_Yes,_ she mentally answered, beaming the thought at him, since at the moment it seemed he was pretending to be able to read her mind. _I was there when Butler told you about it. _If he was trying to make himself sound important or impress her with what he knew, he wasn't do a very good job. Kronski acted like just because she was in a duffel bag at the time and he couldn't see her meant she had been dead to the world.

Kronski playfully pinched her cheek and shook it slightly as if she was a baby, continuing to act like a fool in order to degrade her as much as he could possibly manage.

"Your skin feels almost human," he commented. "What are you? A fairy, is that it?"

More questions to the elf with the taped mouth. Holly rolled her eyes again to try to convey to her best ability a condescending attitude that went beyond even Kronski's. As she did so, a thought suddenly occurred to her.

_Artemis has been thwarted more than once on this trip. But the one doing the thwarting has been... _

Yes, now that she thought about it, Artemis had been technically facing himself so far. So maybe he would have an easier time outwitting this ridiculous man who was continuing to look at her as though her silence proved she was a bit dim than he had facing a younger version of his tactical genius self.

Kronski was apparently done chatting. He suddenly turned back to the three guards, all formality and business now. "_Est-ce qu'elle boug__é__?_ Has she moved?"

The guards, who had been watching the exchange from the background, all shook their heads mutely.

"Very well," said Kronski, looking happy again. "Good. All proceeds according to my plan."

Holly resisted the urge to roll her eyes yet again. She imagined Artemis taking the cliché-ness of the comment as a personal insult, being the self-appointed expert on inventing fresh villainous sayings he was. Had he been there, they could have irritated the president of the Extinctionists by giving him their best sardonic expressions.

Even Kronski seemed to think he'd gone a bit over-the-top. "Listen to me," he said, sounding slightly exasperated with himself. "_All proceeds according to my plan._ That is _so_ Doctor No."

'Doctor No,' Holly gathered, being a James Bond character.

"I should get myself some metal hands," Kronski went on. "What do you think, gentlemen?"

"Metal hands?" said the guard who Holly thought seemed a bit inexperienced, appropriately thrown by the slightly ludicrous question.

Kronski, paying no attention to the guard whatsoever, soon started up on a speech about the importance of the conference to the organization, how the guards were as good as dead if they let 'the creature' escape, and so on, as though he had not already said all this earlier. He added some bits about not removing her restraints or gag for any reason and not letting anyone else see her and such, which as far as Holly could tell, ought to have been mentioned long before now if he didn't think these instructions were so obvious as to go without saying. Holly felt her hope rise.

Yes, if the last five minutes of completely brainless conversation and repetitive, pointless instructions told her anything, it was that the doctor would be a much easier opponent for the older Artemis to hoodwink than his little ten-year-old self.

If he came.

* * *

><p>AN: A pretty fast update, and a fairly long chapter too, so that's good right? (: I'm going back to school in a few days, so I wanted to be generous while I'm still enjoying the prosperous times of vacation, heh.

As for the events in TTP, we are slowly creeping along... Yeah, I liked the whole 'Extinctionist' thing (so outrageous as to be both funny and creepy at the same time, kind of like Opal), so I wanted to spend more time on that.

Plus, this is one point in the book where Holly's perspective is never actually given (and I think purposely avoided), so we don't really get a sense of the kind of ordeal this had to be. I'm not sure whether Colfer was trying to avoid having it coming across as a bit melodramatic to write very much angst in there, or if he thought spending too much time of it might bog down the pace of the action, or if he thought the concept was disturbing enough as it was, and preferred to keep that side of it to a minimum. Or it could have been a mixture of more than one... But anyway, I'm rambling on now, so I'll stop. (;

So yeah, thanks so much for reviewing! I'd love to hear from you, as always. (:

Posted 1/4/12


	21. Death by Incineration

Disclaimer: The characters, much of the dialogue, and sadly, even the plot are not mine; they all belong to Eoin Colfer.

Pages: 237 – 244

Chapter 20: Death by Incineration

Just beyond the freezer where Holly was being held was a silver-steel kitchen, and just beyond that was apparently the dining hall where the event was to be held.

At least, this was what Holly gathered from what she could hear when she put her superior elven hearing to use in order to listen to what was going on beyond her prison. Based on the echoing of the sounds of conversation and clinking of glasses, Holly guessed the dining hall must be a fairly large room. This was not going to be a small event.

Unfortunately, being so close to the center of the action Holly soon began to wish her sense of hearing wasn't quite so keen as the indistinct rumble of talk died down and Damon Kronski started speaking, subjecting her to a stream of such vile sentiments as should have been regarded as criminal just for voicing them.

Kronski began by informing the crowd of an extinction of a species of fish known as the yellowfin cutthroat, which of course was the result of human actions, an event of which the crowd clearly approved. Kronski however claimed to be sorrowful over their demise, telling his audience in mournful tones that drifted back to Holly at the back of the freezer, "No, no. This is not a cause for joy. It is said that the yellowfin was a very tasty fish, with a particularly sweet flavor."

This was even more insulting than the crowd's response, and Holly suddenly had a wish she could put duct tape over Kronski's mouth instead, and make _him _shut up.

Holly was feeling distinctly ill again. Now that the conference had actually begun, Holly was not quite so flippant as she had when Kronski had come to see her. Time was really running out. Although she imagined her appearance in this sick, twisted program would be saved for the very end as the climax, therefore giving her a bit more time before she had to go out there and face her fate, the opportunity for Artemis to show up and get her out was dwindling, almost completely gone now. It looked as though Artemis really was not going to come after all. Maybe he just hadn't had enough time to make any necessary preparations, perhaps he just hadn't had enough resources.

With a sinking feeling, Holly realized that, despite all her reasoning and doubt, deep down she really had been expecting him to be there in the end.

_But there's still a chance,_ she kept saying. _There's still time._

Holly wondered how long was she going to keep saying that. Until Kronski put the skewer through her heart, or whatever he planned to do with her, she supposed.

Holly felt a jolt in her stomach as one of the guards suddenly seized the back of her chair, hoisting her, plastic baby chair and all, into the air. He shifted his grip to get a better hold, then nodded at the other two guards, who nodded back, then turned toward the freezer exit.

Holly's legs dangled helplessly far above the floor.

_No,_ she silently breathed, the word as soft and hopeless in her mind as a wisp of wind against her face through the bars of a prison. It couldn't be time already. Should she try to fight? But any idiot could see that would do nothing to help her. Would Artemis come with a plan to rescue her soon, or was all her hope and waiting in vain?

The three guards moved swiftly into the kitchen, which was completely deserted, then turned left and headed for a set of double doors off to the side similar to the entrance to the freezer itself. The entire time Holly was nauseous with indecision, a feeling she had not often had as a full adult LEP officer. But there was no clear path, no clear action for this situation, and so her thoughts had nowhere to go but to flow in circles like the pacing of a caged beast.

Fighting was her last hope. But why do so when it was completely useless and she might inadvertently interfere with Artemis's plan if he had one? But if Artemis had no plan, if he wasn't here after all, wasn't it better to try every possible avenue she could to get away even if it was no good, rather than sitting here in silence, meekly waiting for the end to come?

One of the guards went ahead of the others and silently opened the entryway. The guard carried Holly quickly through and the doors swung shut behind them.

Inside was what appeared to be a storage space, though it would be closer to say that it resembled a changing room that actors used for putting on plays. All manner of ridiculous costumes on racks, as well as theatrical items like hooks attached to cords used for rock climbing or scaling the side of a building, and swords and flamethrowers among scattered piles of other various props were everywhere. Evidently, Kronski was going all out with this show.

In the center of the room sat several larger sets mounted on wheels, likely used as supporting props to create environments in stage dramas. The largest one caught her notice right away, a sort of wooden platform with horizontal wood boards for a floor like a dock, raised only a little off the floor. However, it wasn't really the wooden platform itself she cared about so much as the steel cage mounted on top of it, and the line that went through the center of the floor inside the cage – a trap door.

Yes, she thought, this was going to be quite the performance. A performance where the much-awaited final act would be her death.

The guard bearing Holly lifted her up over the wooden railing of the dock and set her in the cage, facing the front. He shut the cage door after her and set the lock with an ominous _click_.

Holly's eyes flickered about the space, a steel box with bars in front, like those cages used at Mud Men carnivals to let them see the animals, or even sometimes other Mud Men with abnormalities. Maybe, she realized, this abhorrent exhibition would be better compared to a circus than to a play.

Holly looked all around her carefully, but her eyes told her what she already knew: there was no way out. While she looked, she noticed the lens of a camera winking at her from outside the bars from the upper left-hand corner, that would make certain her execution would be well-documented.

There was also, she noted, a curtain fixed to a small device, the curtain currently held off to one side. Holly could tell as much by the slight smell as the brief glimpse she'd gotten before being placed inside the cage that the material was made of – what else – animal skin. One would think she would be used to the horror of it already, but she suddenly felt queasy.

The guard stared at Holly for a second, then reached up and dragged the drapery closed with a sharp snap.

Holly's eyes adjusted slowly, but still she closed her eyes and bowed her head, for the moment left alone in the darkness.

* * *

><p>Before long, Holly heard the sound of scuffling feet outside, a lot more than her original three guards from the sound of it. She could feel her palms beginning to sweat and when the dock started to move slowly forward on its wheels, at first she jumped like a rabbit, wrists digging against her restraints.<p>

Holly could hear the dull murmur of many disjointed conversations grow louder the moment the dock was moved out of the props room and into what Holly guessed was the Banqueting Hall, where all the guests had earlier eaten the extinct yellowfin.

As soon as the dock came to a stop, so did the hundred or so voices of the Extinctionists, dying away like the settling of an ocean wave. There was a long silence before it finally began.

"Every year we put a rare animal on trial," boomed Kronski's speaker-amplified voice across the hall.

Holly's heart slowly began to pound, and her stomach tightened hard suddenly, as though she'd been thrown off the edge of a building. Here it was then – the countdown to her inevitable demise.

It was happening too quickly. She was suddenly overwhelmed by the feeling that she did not want to die here, like this. She had not said a proper farewell to anyone, not to Mulch or Commander Kelp – no, Trouble – not to Foaly or Nº1, who had been standing right there when she had left her own time, not to anyone she knew in the LEP, not to Butler or any of her human friends, not even to Artemis.

Well, at least she'd had a chance to say goodbye to Commander Root, even if she hadn't known at the time it was a goodbye that involved her end as well as his.

However, the reason why she despised the idea of dying here so much was more than that. It wasn't that she was so terrified of death itself or even that she felt she had so much left she wanted to do in her life, even though she did. If nothing else, she had always wanted to go out fighting, doing something worthwhile so she wouldn't have any regrets – like the commander. Instead, she was going to die as a sideshow freak, nothing more than entertainment for these abominable Mud Men, a means to satisfy the basest of human nature.

At Kronski's use of the word 'trial,' Holly heard several audience members laugh and hoot derisively, as though they and Kronski were sharing an inside joke. Holly understood well the source of their amusement – A bit funny to call something a "trial" when there was absolutely no chance the defendant would be exonerated.

"A _real _trial," Kronski argued good-naturedly, though with a hint of irony in his voice, "where the host prosecutes, and one of you lucky people get to defend." He went on, almost dreamily, "The idea is simplicity itself. If you can convince a jury of your unprejudiced peers that the creature in this cage contributes positively to human existence on this planet, then we will free the creature, which, believe it or not, did happen once in 1983."

Holly was finally beginning to understand the setup of what this spectacle was going to be, the tradition and "rules" of this "trial." Not that it did her one bit of good, as she highly doubted there was a single person in this room who would want to defend her existence seriously. Those who were here were here because they wanted to see a show, the murder of another living being.

Holly wondered what sort of animal it could have been to convince these insane people to let it go back then. _"Contributes positively to human existence on this planet..."_ Holly was so galled by the utter arrogance of the statement, as though they thought themselves to be the gods of the world, she was temporarily distracted from her own predicament.

"A little before my time, but I am assured that it actually happened," Kronski continued, apparently as stumped as Holly on how this crowd could ever find an animal that was useful to human beings.

"If the defense counsel's peers are not convinced of the animal's usefulness, then I press this button," said Kronski. Even though Holly was still in the darkness behind the curtain, she could imagine Kronski's lips curling upward into a little sadistic smile at this.

Holly's hands tightened ever so slightly on the arms of the plastic chair, sweat-slicked palms slipping against the smooth surface.

"Allow me to demonstrate. Indulge me; it's a new pit. I've been testing it all week." He sounded like a big kid with a brand new remote-controlled toy car.

Pit – Holly did not much care for the sound of that. Would she be thrown to some beast to be devoured? Maybe her fate was to be thrown to the animal that had been spared for this very purpose back all that time ago. It would be just like the Extinctionists, she thought, people who hated animals, to keep a particularly big, nasty one as a pet to enjoy watching it first stalk then rip to shreds other creatures as they screamed in fear and agony.

Of course, the Extinctionists wouldn't be getting any screaming out of her. Her mouth was taped.

But in any case, she supposed it would be better to be eaten by some rabid animal than the Extinctionists.

Holly heard a beep and she assumed Kronski must have activated the means of her execution. Perhaps showing off his pet to the crowd. But a moment later, instead of the snarling of some great brutish predator she had been expecting, she heard a _wooshing_ sound and though she felt nothing, she had heard that noise all too often in mission after stupidly dangerous mission in her time with the LEP not to know what it was.

While the Extinctionists clapped approvingly, Holly realized what this 'pit' must contain, or at least she got the general idea.

_Incinerated, _she thought. _I'm going to be incinerated._

Actually, that was quite a bit better than she'd anticipated. Incineration meant it was bound to be pretty quick, and at least now she had the comfort of knowing weird things like being eaten or stuffed and mounted wouldn't be happening to her body afterward. Setting aside the whole murdering-another-sentient-species-for-sport part, comparatively speaking this could almost be considered humane.

Humane – now there was a term that had quite a bit of irony to it.

Meanwhile, the audience was starting to get impatient. One man called out, "Come on, Damon. What have we got tonight? Not another monkey. Every year it's monkeys."

Holly might have smirked if not for her nerves and the tape.

_A lemur, actually. _Or, it was going to be, before Kronski lost it and got a fairy instead.

At least Jayjay wasn't being forced to endure this nightmare, she thought. That was one thing to be glad for.

"No, Jeffery," replied Kronski, "not another monkey. What if – "

"Jeffery" cut Kronski off with an irritated noise from the back of his throat. "Please, no more _what if's_. We had half a dozen with the fish."

As much as Holly would have liked to enjoy hearing someone make snide remarks at Kronski, it was difficult given the fact that the audience was as deranged as he was.

"Jeffery"'s voice had a scratchy, grating quality to it like stones being scrapped against each other, and when he spoke again, there was an added level of viciousness that made his words all the more unpleasant to Holly's ears.

"_Show us the blasted creature."_

There was a short pause, and Holly could imagine Kronski pretending to consider it. Perhaps then he even shrugged his shoulders in apparent indifference.

"As you wish," he said.

Holly's heart began to start up again, pounding so hard and fast against her chest this time that she could feel the vibration of it through her entire body. It was too late now, far too late. Artemis had not come for her, as she should have known from the beginning he would not be able to –

The room went absolutely still and silent again, enough so that Holly could hear the whirring of machinery some ways above where she was. At the same time, she heard a light, high-pitched whine just in front of her to the upper left, no doubt as the camera mounted there was activated. She noticed in the last moment how very much it was like the one Artemis would try in eight years to fix to his mother's bed so that it would be easy for others to examine his mother's condition from afar.

And then the curtain flew aside.

* * *

><p>AN: No, we're not quite to the trial yet... Not next chapter either, but we'll get there eventually, I promise. If you're amazed that it's even possible to go this slow, well, you're not alone. (Yes, it's hard for me to believe too.) But I've found for my writing style when I try to go too fast, it just makes things come out anticlimactic... I have to force myself to slow down and take the time necessary to develop these things, lol. It'll be chapter after next, I promise.

Thanks for reading and reviewing, hope to hear from you! (:

Posted 1/13/12 (Heh heh... Friday the thirteenth.)


	22. Defending Vermin

Disclaimer: The characters, much of the dialogue, and sadly, even the plot are not mine; they all belong to Eoin Colfer.

Pages: 244 – 248

Chapter 21: Defending Vermin

Holly's eyes flew wildly this way and that. Dozens of glittering predatory eyes stared back at her, like the eyes of a hundred cold statues, made all the more dangerous and eerie by the lack of movement.

An enormous banqueting hall stretched out before here, just as she had guessed, the men and women dressed in neat, high-grade suits and elegant, sparkling gowns respectively, seated around round tables draped with white silk table cloths. Everything in the room appeared expensive and high-quality, with potted plants set just around the edge to contribute to the ambiance of fine taste and luxury. She could even just make out the sight of tiny stars winking down at her through the stunning glass ceiling high above their heads.

The setting was a highly impressive sight and could have almost passed for beautiful by Holly's standards, if not for the collection of disturbing decorations crafted from the part of some murdered animal spread throughout, reminding anyone who happened in just what organization was in charge here.

Holly's jumping eyes settled for a moment on the floor just in front of where the podiums were situated before her cage, and she noticed for the first time a water pit covered with a steel grid. Amidst chunks of ice, Holly caught sight of the body of one of the extinct yellowfins floating sadly on the surface, dead eyes blank.

Holly knew that the deceased fish probably couldn't care less whether it was a spectacle for these murderous, insane Mud Men or not, but all the same she found something unspeakably tragic about it, the way after a hundred years of having its body preserved in nature, it would be its fate to wind up in the end in a place like this.

Holly's LEP training made her eyes flickered upward next, automatically falling on the upper landings that went all the way around the edge of the hall, searching the high ground. All gazes were fixed on her of course, but, as she had expected, she noticed a few audience members that appeared especially attentive and unnaturally still. Some had their hands in their jackets, ready to draw something out, while in others' hands she thought she caught the metallic gleam of a weapon. She counted at least six.

Holly had been right – there was no way even Artemis would ever be able to get her out now. Even if Mulch could have tunneled under the compound again, which she doubted judging from the heavy, ornate tiling below, he wouldn't get within ten feet of her before he was riddled with bullets from every direction. Artemis would at the very least need assistance from either Butler or other fairies besides Mulch or both, and of course contacting the underground would just open up a whole new can of worms.

In addition, if Holly tried anything to escape herself, she didn't doubt they would gun her down too. She was trapped. It was really over.

However, the looks of glee and greedy blood-lust she expected to see on the Extinctionists' faces the moment they saw her did not initially come. Instead, for the most part, their expressions seemed colored with confusion. A titter went around the room as the guests exchanged bewildered look of mingled irritation and disappointment.

Apparently, they seemed to be under the impression that Kronski had brought them a young girl instead of a rare animal. Had Kronski lost his mind? Or so they seemed to be asking.

Perhaps even a group dedicated solely to the stamping out of other species of the planet had limits to their degeneracy. Or, Holly thought, maybe they found a little girl not a rare enough specimen to provide a sufficiently exciting show.

But the mistake wasn't to last long. Holly stared at the enormous screen at the back of the room, so large it completely obscured the entire double-heighted wall, where most of the Extinctionists' attention was currently directed. The image shown down on them, a several times larger-than-life visage of Holly sitting tied to the small plastic chair, her tense, defiant features magnified for the pleasure of this most hostile of audiences.

Holly could hear the babble of voices beginning to change tone. She could hear and feel in her chest the volume of the disjointed voices of the crowd rising in excitement now, the realization of what she was and wasn't sweeping through them like a scorching wind through the African desert. _Oh my lord. Her ears. Look at her ears._

_She's not human._

_What is that? What is it?_

Some of the figures in the crowd turned back to study her over their shoulders, and Holly stared back, her face like stone. Some of them had their eyebrows drawn in looks of clear skepticism, but those were far outnumbered by those of openly fascinated curiosity. As Holly watched, the curious mutterings seemed to twist unpleasantly, a pack of aroused jackals at last catching a particularly tantalizing scent on the wind.

Kronski stood at one of the podiums with his back to Holly, gazing out over the crowd and looking immensely pleased with himself. As he turned his head, Holly caught a glimpse of his wide smile. The smile only widened when one of the Extinctionists, a middle-aged man with a distinctive Texan drawl, got up and threatened loudly, "This'd better not be a hoax, Damon. Or we'll string you up."

Someone proving his prize was a hoax was one thing Damon Kronski didn't have to worry about, Holly thought, as she glared at the back of the large man's head and his thin hair, despising him. Somehow, the almost sickeningly intense revulsion coursing through here toward these people was managing to keep the fear at bay. For a moment, she honestly thought that her biggest regret at this point might be passing on without seeing this man get what he deserved, or at least doing her part to make things as hard on him as possible.

_When the time comes, I won't be cowering for your enjoyment, Doctor_.

Although, perhaps he should enjoy himself while he could. Holly had a feeling that if the Artemis of her time couldn't get back to the future, he would make it a point to destroy this organization, and would probably succeed in doing it before the doctor could even reap any of the potential benefits of this travesty of justice.

And for some reason, that thought gave her just a bit of comfort.

* * *

><p>After issuing a few delicate returning threats of his own, Kronski offered the Texan Extinctionist "Tommy" a chance to see for himself if 'the fairy' was authentic or not.<p>

The initial daze had almost completely worn off now. Everywhere Holly turned her head, she could now see nothing but a sea of rapacious faces, hungry for a show of brutality and absolute human control. She could hear them talking, whispering amongst themselves. _The creature_ they said, over and over again.

A cold numbness was spreading through Holly's limbs now, only to be suddenly pierced by a hot stab of anger.

"_Contributes positively to human existence on this planet..."_ It was so ludicrous she couldn't even laugh at it. How much, Holly wondered, would these depraved people succeed in destroying in their quest to plunder Mother Nature of all her resources? How could this even be allowed to happen?

Holly felt herself becoming almost dizzy with the monstrosity of all of it, the smell of her own sweat and fear somehow feeding her anger. It felt as though terror and fury had fused together inside her, the presence of each only making the other that much stronger of an emotion. This feeling of being so helpless, unable to escape made her want to hurt them, and the fact that she couldn't get at a single one made her want to get as far away as she could from these people with their insidious ideals. For a moment, the raging battle of emotion reared up inside her and it was almost unbearable.

When the Extinctionist 'Tommy' came up and reached slowly, cautiously through the bars of the cage, as though expecting her to snap her teeth at his outstretched fingers, her entire body went suddenly rigid, every muscle taut with tension.

The idea of any one of these people touching her was so revolting, as soon as she felt the man's hand against her ear, for one wild moment Holly thought that, had her mouth not been taped, she might have spat in his face and hissed, _"Don't you ever touch me, Mud Slime." _

It was probably just as well, as she doubted that would have helped her situation much.

Holly flinched away from him, but by the time she did the hand was already gone.

"My saints," said the Extinctionist, eyes wide, "it's no fake. This is the real deal." He stepped back from the cage, a slow smile spreading across his face, the expression as malignant and repulsive to Holly's eyes as a rancid infection. He said, almost breathless, "We got ourselves a fairy."

That was fast, thought Holly, distracted a moment. Not that she wasn't relieved not to be forced to endure a more extensive, no doubt humiliating examination with the Extinctionist's filthy, animal-murdering hands on her even more, but she had been expecting something a bit more thorough. He'd barely touched her ear and, though it was indeed real, that paltry test didn't seem like it would be enough to convince a true skeptic.

Holly eyed Kronski's back as "Tommy" went over to the podium and gave the doctor a congratulatory handshake and slap on the back.

This was all set up before-hand, she realized. In fact, it was almost painfully obvious. Had Artemis been orchestrating things to give his audience a certain impression, he would have been sure to plan out a far more believable exchange she was certain.

Thinking of Artemis gave Holly a slight pang. How she wished he was here, even if he didn't have any kind of plan to get her out. It would be nice not to have to die alone.

Holly corralled her thoughts, trying to direct them elsewhere by glancing around the room at the Extinctionists seated around the sophisticatedly adorned round tables once again. Surely they were not buying Kronski and the other man's little act either.

However, the Extinctionists must not have had as high a standard as Holly for pre-planned deceptions as, for the most part, they looked fairly satisfied with Tommy's assessment and subsequent conversion.

They were certainly an easy bunch to fool, judged Holly scathingly. Not that it mattered much how in-depth they wanted to go in their scrutiny in this case, as Holly was in fact a real fairy. Commander Root would probably pop a vein if he could see the situation she was in now. And, now that she thought about it, he probably would eventually see it if the Extinctionists were recording this and planning to distribute the footage to the world to let every Mud Man there was know of her existence. Holly mentally winced.

Smugness was radiating from Kronski's every pore, so much so that Holly didn't have to actually see his expression to feel it like deadly ultraviolet rays of light on her face. "I will prosecute the fairy," said Kronski to the crowd, "as is the tradition. But who will defend? What unlucky member will draw the black ball? Who will it be?" Kronski allowed a short, dramatic pause. "Bring the bag," he ordered.

And so, Holly supposed from this that her defense attorney would be chosen by lottery from among this crowd of gullible, greedy, high-society snobs whose faces at the moment were rather resembling a pack of wolves eying a piece of meat again. Very reassuring.

_Just give in, and it will all be over soon,_ said a small voice in the back of her mind.

_No! Never stop fighting, until your last breath. You're LEP. You're a professional._

Holly's heart was beating faster. No escape. No hope. But something inside her kept pushing her to sit up straighter, to keep her expression hard and apathetic to the end, to never show weakness. If she had to die, she would do it like an officer of the LEP.

However, while these thoughts passed in a flash through her mind, a single voice rose above the dull, anxious murmur of Extinctionists expressing their fervent desire not to be appointed so hard and humiliating a task as arguing "the creature's" usefulness to humanity. A male voice, relatively young, with just a hint of utter self-assurance that bordered on arrogance.

"No need for the bag. I will defend the creature."

Holly's heart shot into her throat and her eyes along with most of that of the Extinctionists in the hall shifted instantly straight to the source.

A slim figure dressed in a beige formal suit made of a lighter material to better accommodate him in the warmer climate, with long dark hair combed back from his face and a goatee on his chin stood near the back of the hall. He was a man who in every fiber exerted a presence that whispered he was a paragon within this crowd, the very picture of what an Extinctionist should be within this group of haughty, cruel, wealthy individuals.

"And you are?" said Kronski as Holly noticed him discreetly fiddle with the laptop.

The young man, who by now had the attention of everyone in the hall, stood calmly by his table, wearing an expression that was almost serene, except for the way his confident blue eyes seemed to flash a challenge from behind the tinted yellow lenses of the frameless glasses he wore. The corners of his mouth twisted up in a smile that held just a hint of mockery about it. "Why don't we give your identification software a moment to whisper the answer to you."

Kronski must have discovered something impressive on his database because as soon as he read what was on his screen, Holly noticed an immediate change come over him.

"Mr. Pasteur," said the doctor, suddenly all affability and warmth. "We are delighted to welcome you to Morocco." He added curiously, though his tone still polite, clearly meant to make certain Pasteur did indeed feel included in this exclusive group, "But tell me, why would you wish to defend this creature? Her fate is almost certainly sealed."

"Pasteur" approached the vacant podium with the practiced, confident stride of a highly regarded lawyer.

Holly's heart pounded as he drew closer, her eyes fixed unblinkingly on her self-appointed defense attorney.

_He came,_ she thought. She should have known he would. And yet, somehow she couldn't believe he was actually here, brazenly standing so completely exposed and unprotected right in the heart of the hornets' nest.

"I enjoy a challenge," Artemis told Kronski dismissively. "It is a mental exercise."

Holly could feel a sort of buzz of excitement under her skin, seeing him. The combined effect of the suit, glasses, and fake beard made him look strangely more mature than she'd ever seen him, a sort of understated disguise. But mixed in with the excitement was fear as well, and she felt her eyes moving almost unwillingly to the second-level landings above once again, where she knew some of Kronski's men stood waiting should there be any kind of trouble.

Her eyes went back to Artemis. Was this really okay? If they suspected him of being the Extinctionist impostor he was, he would not be able to escape; there was no Butler to take drastic action should things go wrong. Holly was supposed to assist Artemis and keep him safe on this mission, but she was sitting here trapped and ineffectual in this cage. Somehow she very much doubted Mulch was anywhere near enough to be of help this time, and it wasn't as though there would be much he could do even if he had been.

Artemis did not even look at Holly as he stepped up to his podium, turning his back to her like Kronski to face the majority of the crowd.

"Defending _vermin_ is an exercise?" said Kronski, still polite, but with just a hint of humorous incredulity. Holly stiffened convulsively at the use of the word, but then creased her eyebrows slightly, annoyed with herself that she was still being affected by things like that at this stage. Perhaps it was simply the strength of the disdain of the word which went beyond the other terms he had employed thus far.

"_Especially_ vermin," Artemis replied as he opened the laptop on his podium stand. He turned partially toward Kronski, and Kronski was now turned slightly toward him, so Holly could now see at least part of their expressions.

"It is easy to defend a servile, useful animal like the common cow," Artemis continued. "But this?" There was just a hint of a sneer in his voice, a perfect replica of Kronski's own attitude toward 'the creature.' "This will be a hard-fought battle."

Holly felt her tense muscles relax ever so slightly. She supposed she shouldn't have worried about Artemis's true allegiances to non-human species being discovered; Artemis was able to fit right in with them.

"A pity to be crushed in battle so young," noted Kronski, pretending to look sorry. He was no longer bothering trying to sound polite, now only eager to make himself look good by disgracing his opponent.

Artemis however did not appear the least bit intimidated. In fact, he looked almost bored with Kronski's posturing. Amazing really how Artemis could project an image this convincing, with every word and tone further making himself one of them.

"I have always like your style, Dr. Kronski," Artemis began, ignoring Kronski's comment. "Your commitment to the ideals of Extinctionism."

Holly guessed she was probably the only one in the room inclined to want to laugh at that. Except maybe Artemis, though his voice didn't carry even the slightest hint of irony or humor. Did any of the Extinctionists actually consider themselves idealists?

Artemis continued, "For years I have followed your career, since I was a boy in Dublin, in fact. Lately, however, I feel that the organization has lost its way, and I am not the only one with this feeling."

There was a few seconds silence as the audience digested this or perhaps mentally agreed with him, while Holly tried to figure out what Artemis was trying to do. Everything he said must all have some purpose, the careful flattery, the interest in engaging in 'a mental exercise,' but she could not know what he meant by antagonizing Kronski.

Artemis was practically disputing Kronski's claim to the presidency of the organization, questioning whether he was the best man for the job, and the doctor would not take that lying down. Kronski was a dangerous man. If he was willing to do away with a clearly sentient being like Holly, he would certainly be willing to nullify another human if he got in the way, Holly was certain.

Did Artemis think being an Extinctionist would protect him? The way he'd phrased it, he had seemed to be putting himself on the side of the audience while simultaneously setting them all against Kronski, so perhaps that was the goal. But still, it was a risky move. It wouldn't take much to provoke Kronski to do something drastic.

Holly wished she could somehow warn Artemis to be cautious, but he didn't even glance at her.

Kronski was no longer smiling. "Be careful what you say, Pasteur," said the doctor coldly. "You tread on dangerous ground."

Artemis shot a meaningful glance at the yellowfin water pit just in front of the podiums. "You mean I could sleep with the fishes?" he said bluntly, unafraid to outright state what the doctor would only hint at. "You would kill me, Doctor? A mere boy?" A bit of a sneer crept into his tone again as he added, "I don't think that would bolster your credibility much."

Kronski was silent, thoughts no doubt churning behind those ridiculous violet sunglasses of his.

Holly could have grinned if not for the tape. There Artemis went, cornering his opponents with words alone as no one else could. Now she understood: Kronski was trapped now, with no choice but to play by Artemis's rules. Or, more accurately, the actual rules set by the Extinctionists themselves, or else risk losing face with his organization. And Artemis had been able to do it so easily.

Holly made up her mind to stop questioning Artemis's strategies for dealing with the Extinctionists and trust him to know what he was doing as he usually did. Certainly he hadn't been doing so well recently on this current trip, but he had been essentially battling against himself, and all along there had been various other uncertain factors there to trip him up, so she should cut him some slack. In contrast, right now Artemis was in his element, in an environment that he was not only comfortable in, but comfortable in dominating.

Watching him now after having known him for all these years, Holly found herself thinking, _This is the Artemis I know._

* * *

><p>AN: Next chapter's the trial! At last! And it's only a five-parter. (;

...Just kidding. Don't worry, the actual trial is only one chapter, really. (Even I have limits.) To be honest, this chapter and the next one could have been combined as they really belong together, but I didn't want a 7,500-word chapter (at least not for this fanfiction). I wonder if I should try to post it sooner than my usual pace then? I'm anticipating this is going to be a busy week, but I don't think there's much that needs to be done to the next chapter, so I could try if anyone would like that.

Anyway, you have no idea how hard it was trying to work out the logistics of where everything was located and such in my mind in this scene... For one thing, I know in the book it clearly says when Holly's cage and the two podiums are brought out that the pit with the fish is covered over, but later it says Artemis threw the nu skin bandage (the supposed fake ear) into the watery pit (page 259). I think it's a discrepancy, and so I decided to leave the pit basically uncovered since it suited my purposes better.

Thanks for reading so far! As always, you know how much I love feedback; hope to hear from you! (:

Posted 1/20/12


	23. The Trial

Disclaimer: The characters, much of the dialogue, and sadly, even the plot are not mine; they all belong to Eoin Colfer.

Pages: 248 – 253

Chapter 22: The Trial

Holly's gaze was fixed on the podium in front of her, waiting for Kronski's response. Though she couldn't see more than a quarter of the doctor's face, even to her his returning smile in response to "Pasteur's" accusation looked fake.

"I don't kill _humans_," he told the room, apparently offended to even have to express something so patently obvious. Not that the majority of them probably cared that much, unless it affected them personally. "Just animals. Like the animal in this cage."

He gestured back at Holly and he was greeted with mild clapping and a few cheers, though Holly thought the feedback lacked some of the ardor of before.

Holly noticed many of the eyes in the hall were instead now trained on Artemis in obvious curiosity, even fascination. All the stubble had been shaved from his chin, his long scraggly hair smoothed back behind his ears, his clothing neatly pressed. Holly found herself thinking idly it was little wonder how this new face could appear out of nowhere and steal the show. "Pasteur" cut a more striking and, dare she say it, _handsome_ figure by far than Damon Kronski. Despite his youth, the young man had a commanding, yet intriguing presence about him. When he was standing next to Kronski it was immediately clear whose would make the more appealing face to have as representative of the organization.

Kronski indeed was staring at Artemis much like the actor of the main character in a high school play production who'd just been upstaged by the comedy relief. He forced himself to stop looking sour however and attempted to wrest control of the flow of his own conference by smoothly switching the subject back to the matter at hand.

"Allow me to explain the rules," he began, and would have continued had not Artemis been too quick for him.

"No need," replied the young man, before Kronski could get even one rule out. "I have read several transcripts. The prosecutor puts his case, the defender puts his case. A few minutes of lively debate, then each table votes. Simple." He went on with just a hint of derisive impatience, "Can we please proceed, Doctor. No one appreciates their time being wasted."

"Very well," said Kronski, who had looked annoyed for a second but regained his confidence quickly. "We shall proceed." With one glance at his computer screen the doctor began his argument.

"People say that we Extinctionist hate animals. But this is not the case. We do not hate poor dumb animals; rather, we love humans."

For once, Kronski spoke in a carefully measured tone that could be described as almost reasonable. Realistically, someone brought in off the street to listen might have very well judged it as so, as long as they couldn't understand English.

"We love humans," Kronski continued, "and will do whatever it takes to ensure that we, as a race, survive for as long as possible. This planet has limited resources, and I, for one, say we should hoard them for ourselves."

Holly's gaze traveled over the room, and she wondered sardonically what part of this extravagant setting was about conserving the planet's natural assets for the human race. If the Extinctionists actually cared about their fellow humans, they would be using all this money to get food to those dying of hunger and disease on the streets all around the world instead of using it to hold a fancy conference like this and purchase exotic animals on the black market. Surely it wouldn't even take a genius to send Kronski's logic tumbling to the ground like a house of cards.

Then again, this wasn't exactly an unbiased audience. No matter how sound the argument, if each person here was crazy enough to have joined this group in the first place, they might be inclined to lynch anyone who started spouting views they didn't like, rather than respond to reason.

"Why should humans starve when dumb animals grow fat?" Kronski asked, just the barest hint of a sneer in his voice. "Why should humans freeze when beasts lie toasty warm in their coats of fur?"

Holly knew the only way to deal with people with views such as these was to maintain a level of indifference. These arguments were so completely absurd that there was no use getting outraged over it.

Yet, at these last words of Kronski's, an unexpected wave of nausea and white-hot anger surged through Holly, punching through her thin wall of determined cool detachment. It was too much, even for Kronski. Images of the bleached, diseased skin of a pod of cheerful dolphins and the frightened chattering of scores of monkeys and beautiful tropical birds deep in the jungle and thin polar bears with sunken eyes flashed like lightning through her mind. The greedy, odious man, how dare he? So animals all around the world were supposed to die in order that profligate humans like him could live surrounded by such gross opulence? Any self-respecting environmentalist on the planet would be apoplectic with rage.

_You're the beast, _she thought with venom, her eyes boring into Kronski's back, as though with her gaze alone she could knock him from his high place into his own water pit, to float alongside the disrespected corpses of the yellowfin.

However, even if there had been a whole team of conservationists there to rage at Kronski, Artemis chose a method of attack that, in the end, probably proved far more effective.

If Artemis was irritated by Kronski's comments, which had to represent the epitome of the self-centeredness of humanity, he didn't show it and instead kept a steady gaze on the doctor the entire time, lips upturned just a bit at the corners in an expression that had the potential for mockery in every line.

As soon as Kronski had reached a stopping point, Artemis said, "_Ahem,_" into his fist, looking as though he were trying not to smile. "Really, Dr. Kronski, I have read several variations on this speech. Every year, it seems, you trot out the same simplistic arguments. Can we please focus on the creature before us tonight?"

Artemis wasn't just being insulting, Holly noticed, he was drawing attention to the clear lack of specificity of Kronski's statements. Holly heard murmurs of agreement around the audience and Kronski looked clearly angry by Artemis's condescending attitude, though he made every effort to conceal it.

"Most amusing, boy," said Kronski, the spurious smile on his lips contrasting with the tightness around his eyes as he stared hard at his opponent. "I was going to take it easy on you, but now the gloves are off."

Kronski, take it easy on Artemis – _ha_. Holly would like to see the man try to keep up.

Apparently Artemis was thinking the same thing. "We are delighted to hear it," he said wryly.

Kronski must have sensed danger of some kind or other. His eyes flickered from Artemis to the audience, a nervous, almost calculating look in his eye.

Holly realized that the fact that he needed to regain his audience's sympathy and soon must have begun to really dawn on the Extinctionist president. "Pasteur" only had to say a few words to get the crowd ready and eager to be critical of their leader, putting Kronski further and further at a disadvantage with every word. He had to act.

In response, Kronski raised his arms, spreading them wide in a kind of 'V' above his head like a butterfly about to take flight, though without the elegance or beauty. When he opened his mouth again, he spoke in a completely different voice. For the first time, he sounded truly powerful and authoritative. So much so that it almost made one forget he was, in fact, a pudgy old man who squealed at loud noises and made random James Bond references.

"This is not what we are about, people," he boomed and the room went silent as heads swiveled back toward Kronski, who had at last succeeded in retrieving their attention. "We did not travel all this way for some petty verbal sparring."

Interesting that Kronski was suddenly above 'verbal sparring,' Holly thought. Apparently hypocrisy and finger pointing were the universal distractions in debates when one's actual logic turned out to be a consummate failure.

Kronski wasn't done yet. He jabbed a finger in Holly's direction. "_This_ is what the Extinctionists are about," said Kronski, as though he was a salesmen advocating a company's newest product, or else denouncing that of a rival. "Ridding our planet of creatures like this."

Kronski hesitated, shooting a glance at Artemis almost compulsively, perhaps to see how his opponent was reacting. But Artemis, while attentive, did not appear worried, and even maintained a look of polite interest, if appearing slightly bewildered, as he listened to Kronski's claims. Perhaps showing an adversary some shred of respect was another way to gain credibility with the audience, even if that respect was purely superficial.

Kronski continued, ignoring Artemis. "We have a new species here, friends. A _dangerous_ species." He went on with considerable feeling as he listed off everything Butler had told him yet again as though it was his own discovery, "It can make itself invisible, it can hypnotize with speech. It was _armed_."

While Holly was wondering if the doctor could possibly fit the word _it _into this speech any more times, Kronski produced Holly's Neutrino and waved the gun around a bit, forging on with his exposition on what a menace Holly was.

"Do any of us wish to face a future where this could be pointed in our faces?" he demanded of the now rapt crowd. "Do we? The answer, I think, is clearly no." His voice fell, like an orchestra pulling back just before the climax of the piece, a tone that as ever seemed to simulate that of careful reason. "Now, I'm not going to pretend that this is the last one of its kind. I feel certain that there are thousands of these fairies, or aliens, or whatever, all around us. But does that mean we should grovel and release this little creature?"

His voice rose again with passion. "I say no. I say we send a message. Execute one, and the rest will know we mean business. The governments of the world despise us now, but tomorrow they will come banging down our door for guidance."

Holly wished she could have somehow conveyed her lack of awe just to get under the doctor's skin. Yawning widely might have been a good start, but unfortunately her mouth was still taped.

The concept Kronski was trying to convey was far from new or insightful. It was only the age-old tactic so often used by Mud Men in general throughout the ages to control each other, trying to tap into their own kind's strongest natural instincts: fear and the desire to dominate. In short, the doctor was unstoppable.

Kronski cried out in a powerful roar like the voice of some supernatural power from the stars, rising to a fevered pitch, "We are Extinctionists, and our time is now!"

The crowd broke out in enthusiastic applause, signaling the end of the doctor's side of the address.

Holly didn't need to be able to see the future to predict how this would turn out. The minds of every single one of these people were already long made up. It didn't matter what Artemis might say; by going first, Kronski had already captured the audience.

Kronski indeed looked immensely satisfied. He nodded in Artemis's direction. "The floor is yours, boy."

However, Artemis for his part did not appear in the least disturbed by Kronski's good reception. He stood straight and tall, and looked steadily out over the room filled with sanguinary faces. After a short pause he began, speaking with the easy confidence of a practiced public speaker, though whether he was or not Holly couldn't have said.

"When I was young," he began, "and the family wintered in South Africa, my grandfather would tell me stories of a time when people had the right attitude toward animals."

Holly had been expecting another speech like Kronski's which, for all it's drama and emotion, she had found rather tedious at the beginning, and in the middle. But now she had to admit she was curious. She had once had a gnommish teacher back in her early years of schooling, an old gnome whose memory was perhaps failing a little, because he was constantly repeating this bit of wisdom: _"Now you all, never underestimate the power of a good personal story to arouse interest in your writing. Research papers, argumentative essays – believe it or not, they can be downright pleasurable with the right relevant little narratives mixed in, even if the original subject's about as exciting as watching stinkworms grow." _

Apparently her former instructor and Artemis were on the same page, and now she had to admit she thought she might finally be able to see what the aged gnome had meant.

"'We kill 'em when it suits us,' he said to me," Artemis told the crowd sitting before him. "When it serves our purposes."

Holly could see his cold eyes briefly meeting each one of those of the Extinctionists, not imploring or begging, not putting himself at the mercy of their judgment, but connecting with them, bringing them into his way of thinking, the world as he saw it. "This is what the Extinctionists used to be about. A species was not _protected_ unless we humans benefited from its survival. We kill when it _benefits_ us."

Holly's breath caught involuntarily. An inexplicable chill coursed down her spine at these words. She knew that this was all a front, that Artemis was merely creating a false image of himself that would make it appear as though he shared the beliefs of all the Extinctionists here in order that they would be more disposed to listen to him. This was all an act, and Artemis was the actor, as in a play.

Yet even so it sounded for just an instant like a sentiment Artemis might really have. Even at the age of twelve when he had been at his worst he had never done atrocious things purely for entertainment like Opal Koboi. But if he saw a profit of some kind in it, if it brought him closer to achieving his goals, he would not hesitate to commit despicable, heinous acts all the same. Horrible crimes against justice. Lying, kidnapping, blackmailing, selling off a nearly-extinct species and then a sentient being to an insane group to be slaughtered...

Though she fought it, Holly felt a flicker of discomfort. For the first time, she felt in her mind herself placing Artemis and the other criminals she had come across on the same scale, placing Artemis one one side of the tilting scale and other criminals on the other.

At this, Holly began to feel a surreal haze falling over her vision as she stared at the backs of the two debating Extinctionists, as though she were drifting through a dream and had come to a scene that could not possibly be really happening, as though her body was here, but she herself was somewhere else. She felt a heightened awareness of herself and her surroundings from her realization of what should have been obvious from the start.

The realness of that connection between young Artemis and the likes of Damon Kronski, one purchasing her for the pleasure of murdering her, the other selling her to someone who he knew would dispose of her, the equality of the level of evil of the two acts, was suddenly tangible. She felt slightly sick.

What troubled her most of all, however, was not the unpleasant comparison. The Artemis she knew now had changed so much, he was no longer like Kronski or Spiro or Cudgeon, those ruthless, grasping individuals. He had done things that were not the things indicative of a noble character, but they had been understandable.

Rather, it was her own reaction to the thought that alarmed her. How much she realized she did not want to think of her friend's past in those terms, how she wanted to justify it, to make excuses so that she could say there was no comparison at all. After all these years of so often defying the LEP in order to do as she thought was right, was there no sense of justice in her anymore, of fairness? Had her judgment become so biased without her noticing?

_Don't think about it, _she told herself firmly. _Just watch._

Meanwhile, Artemis was still speaking. "...This was an ideal worth fighting for. Worth killing for. But this... This is a circus." He pointed straight back at Holly without turning to look at her. "This in an insult to the memory of our ancestors who gave their time and gold to the Extinctionists' cause."

It was the perfect simulation of the quintessential Extinctionist. She would expect nothing less from Artemis Fowl.

Perhaps it was because he was so completely convincing that, even knowing it was not real, revulsion of the things that were coming out of his mouth wormed its way irresistibly past her defenses, working its way to the surface of her mind. Yet simultaneously she was also struck by the brilliance of his delivery, captivated by the way he built it up like a master sculptor, creating piece by perfectly molded piece a kind of work of art.

"We have an opportunity to learn from this creature. We owe it to our predecessors to find out if she can contribute to our coffers. If this is, in reality, a fairy, then who knows what magic it possesses?" His voice dropped tantalizingly. "Magic that could be yours," he said softly. "If we kill this _fairy_, we will never know what unimaginable wealth dies with it."

There was just a tinge of regret to his tone, already mourning the waste of such a veritable source of power and resources.

With his piece done, Artemis swept a bow and fell silent.

For a moment, Holly could do nothing but sit unmoving in her place, her breath barely coming through her mouth as though winded by a blow to the stomach.

When Artemis had first started talking, Holly had privately thought that Artemis did not have quite the charisma Kronski did, even if she hated to admit it. With the way the doctor's voice rang through the room in deep tones they could all feel vibrating deep in their chests, there could be no doubt he knew how to handle a crowd. He was able to touch their emotions with the sound of his voice alone, able to rile them up and get them excited about the kill, or make them feel the fear of some indefinable danger. But now she could see she had been dead wrong.

Kronski had the charisma to stir up emotions, but ultimately there was little substance to what he said. The audience had been left with the vague impression that Holly was dangerous and her species needed to be shown the Extinctionist philosophy that humans were the rulers of this world, and that was it. It sounded perfectly fine until "Pasteur" got well into explaining the defense's side of things.

Holly hadn't noticed at first the subtlety with which the human teenager was drawing in the Extinctionists to this opposing viewpoint, slowly creating a shared sense of purpose between himself and the other Extinctionists. _"We owe it to our predecessors..."_ Kronski had tried to do the same thing in proclaiming humans were all at risk because of 'the creature' and her ilk. But Artemis had finished by appealing first and foremost to their sense of greed. _"Magic that could be yours..."_ He was offering them something more tactile, an acquisition that no one else in the world would have.

Artemis was indeed every bit as powerful and charismatic a speaker as Kronski. Kronski spoke like some kind of twisted version of an inspirational speaker, with such force as to appear almost capable of imposing his own will on the audience. Artemis, on the other hand, was more subtle. Instead, it was logic that was his weapon, and it seemed to pierce through Kronski's faulty arguments like as sword, even as his voice never rose above a certain level, ever carefully weaving his way into the good graces of the audience. The understated emotion of each word only seemed to add to the power of his speech.

First he introduced a tinge of shame at what the Extinctionists had been reduced to, placing the blame not on the Extinctionists but on Kronski, then invited them to help him fix the problem with a sort of gentle plea as he spoke of the opportunity they now had and what they owed those that came before. Artemis's view had the ring of rationality, of true logic to it, so much so that it was almost mesmerizing.

Between Artemis and Kronski, Artemis truly would by all appearances make the greater, more inspiring leader. It was amazing to think that on top of that, this persona of Artemis's was an utter facade, a sham. He was merely injecting all his words with that familiar ring of truth and combining it with the power of his cold certain eyes, that technique of his Holly knew so well. He always arranged his moves so that both his enemies and his friends alike would have no choice but to follow the projected path of his plans – Ironic that that deceptive tongue which had been to her such a source of pain and anxiety just a day or two before may turn out to be her salvation.

Holly realized that before now she had never seen the full extent of Artemis's power of persuasion. She wasn't even sure she was seeing his full abilities now, even as he stood before an entire room full of insane, beastly people who all stood in the way of his goal and were dead set against his achieving it, all the while not a one doubting his authenticity as their gazes remained resolutely fixed on him.

Holly suddenly had an image of Artemis as a puppeteer as he stood behind his podium, rapidly manipulating the many strings like a pro so fast that Holly hadn't a chance of keeping up as he guided and bent the crowd to his will. If he so wanted, Holly had no doubt Artemis _could_ lead the Extinctionists, with a much surer hand than Kronski – Artemis honestly made a better Extinctionist than Kronski. Even after knowing the boy for so long, Holly knew she had not fully recognized just what a formidable force this boy would be when he reached adulthood and he was taken more seriously by the world than he was as an adolescent.

In the back of her mind, just a tinge of fear perhaps should have sprung up then, a black tendril of the barest hint of doubt appearing from nowhere to slowly wrap around her subconscious. Her friend was almost frightening where he was, that terrifying power of his voice and mind, so much more dangerous than any physical power.

But the dominant emotion that seemed to well up inside her momentarily as she stared at her friend was not fear or apprehension, and the worries about her own perhaps waning sense of justice where he was concerned did not seem quite so important. She was still far from convinced that Artemis would be able to get her out, but still this was her ally standing in this room. He was fighting for her case, wielding such might as to gain control over these people bit by bit with so few words. In this nightmare hall, this nest of such mentally depraved and sunken individuals, he alone was on her side, and so to see him with such insurmountable strength in this moment came as a comfort. No, an exhilaration.

Kronski, however, did not seem nearly as in awe as Holly over Artemis's performance. "How many times must we listen to this argument?" he wanted to know, throwing his hands up dismissively. "Master Pasteur accuses me of repeating myself, while he repeats the tired argument of every defense counsel we have ever listened to."

Of course, Holly thought, the difference between Kronski's accusation that Artemis was being repetitive and Artemis's earlier charge leveled at the doctor was mainly that Artemis was specifically pointing out the fact that Kronski had only been making generalizations. The Extinctionist president probably could have just inserted a tape-recording of a speech from a previous year and no one would have been able to much tell the difference. In contrast, Artemis was taking an argument, used perhaps, and applying it to this particular situation in an effective way.

Holly wondered if the Extinctionists would even be able to pick up on that subtlety, though. She doubted it.

Now, for the record, Holly normally hated messing around thinking about anything too philosophical or any abstract concepts concerning argument, but she had found herself more than interested almost against her will as she recognized each tactic being put to use; she had no doubt she was understanding things as well as she was only because of all the time she had spent in Artemis's company. Holly also preferred to pay attention from the standpoint that she figured that somewhere along the line Artemis's plan may require her to actually do something, and she didn't want to be caught staring off into space if that happened.

"Ooh," Kronski meanwhile went on mockingly, "let us not kill the creature, for it is potentially the source of all our power and wealth. I remember spending a fortune on a sea slug that was supposed to cure arthritis. All we got was very expensive goo."

While Holly was relishing the thought of Kronski wasting his money on useless sea slugs, the doctor finished with an insistent, "This is all supposition."

"But this creature is magical," argued Artemis, hitting the podium's surface to emphasize the point, though his emotions remained veiled and controlled even now. "We have all heard how she can turn invisible. Even now her mouth is taped so she cannot hypnotize us." His voice dropped once more as he verbally reached out, offering forth again the tempting reward that seemed to be at their fingertips. "Imagine the power we could wield if we were to unlock the secrets of these gifts. If nothing else, they would better prepare us to deal with the rest of her kind."

And there they had it. Artemis had not only provided a better prize than Kronski, the power of actual magic versus merely getting the chance to feel superior for a little while, he had undermined Kronski's main argument, that Holly was dangerous and therefore had to be eliminated. After all, the danger was better averted learning all they could from their captured fairy.

However, by this time the initial thrill was wearing off and Holly didn't much feel like silently gloating. Of course, it was still up to the Extinctionists to decide her fate even if Artemis had done his best, but her main worry was starting to be that Artemis may have done too good a job, and she might actually survive after all. Artemis may hope to extend her life and, once she was away from all the sharpshooters and audience members, mount a rescue with the extra time, but if Holly took what Artemis was saying at face value, he wasn't really doing her any favors. After all, if she had a choice between being tortured and drugged for information followed by dissection for scientific analysis, and being incinerated, she would take the incineration every time.

"We have tried to interrogate her," said Kronski, lying through his teeth. "Our best men tried, and she told us nothing."

Kronski was clearly more concerned about his position in the organization than with human supremacy, or the ideals of Extinctionism. If Artemis's ultimate plan, whatever it was, in all this failed, ironically it may be Kronski's short-sightedness that saved the fairy people. Without Holly's body, the only evidence of her existence would be the recording, and video recordings could lie much more easily than hard evidence, as the skeptical world at large would be aware.

"It is difficult to talk with a taped mouth," Artemis commented, and Holly felt gratified to have someone at last acknowledge a bit of the doctor's lunacy.

However, Kronski instantly pounced on this sliver of apparent lack of proper disgust or hostility toward their captive.

"The human race faces its most deadly enemy," said Kronski, voice low and almost shaking with apparent righteous indignation, "and you want to cozy up to it. That is not how we Extinctionists do things. If there is a threat, we wipe it out. That is how it has always been."

Choosing tradition over efficiency and intelligence, then. Kronski was certainly behind the times. However, it seemed so were the majority of the Extinctionists, as they broke into a round of ferocious cheers at Kronski's words.

Holly got the sneaking suspicion they couldn't care less about ideals or 'sending a message' or unlocking obscure magical secrets. They just wanted to kill something.

Kronski had won. He knew it, an unpleasant grin spreading from one flabby ear to the other on his wide face, and Holly knew it. As clever as Artemis had been in dealing with this crowd on their terms, tailoring his argument based on their own views and tearing down every single one of Kronski's, it just hadn't been enough. Maybe Artemis had known from the start it was a long shot, that it would be near impossible to make them change their minds.

Holly stayed alert, determined not to completely give up hope until the end. She would be ready for any opportunity to escape that came her way, but at the same time, she hadn't been expecting much different than this from the start. There had never been much hope.

Holly studied the back of Artemis's head. If she was going to die here, at least there would be a friend nearby. There was no danger of her breaking down into a panic now. Ever since he had come, in some ways she had felt oddly calm, as though it did not matter what happened to her in the end.

Still, she wished that Artemis would look at her, if only to send some signal, give her some clue as to whether he had something more in store, or if she might as well start preparing herself for the inevitable. Even if he would just meet her gaze out of the corner of his eye and shake his head by a fraction.

Holly wanted her eyes to drift closed so she wouldn't have to see anymore. However, she couldn't afford to miss anything in case Artemis did suddenly decide to send a silent, furtive message, or an opportunity of another kind just happened to come her way. Besides, she did not think even now she could ever make herself give in.

Holly stared hard at the carefully combed locks of jet black hair. _Look at me, Artemis,_ she thought. _Look at me._

Artemis did not turn, much the way he had turned away from her when she had laid stranded on Hybras, reaching out to him before her body had given out on her, her heart beating its last.

Yet, much like on Hybras, that moment of abandonment didn't mean he wasn't going to save her in the end. And this particular plan of Artemis Fowl's was far from over.

* * *

><p>AN: Well, here it is. (; (And it grew into quite a long one) Did I say I didn't think this chapter needed to have much done to it...? Yeah, that turned out to be a lie, heh. I don't think I realized there was so much complicated inner monologuing going on when I read over it before, and those kind of chapters always have to come together/be corrected piece by painful piece. Plus I didn't think the commentary of the underlying things going on in the arguments was as clear as I thought it was originally, so that was stressful...

Meh, yeah, I'm still not sure if I pulled any of this off very effectively in the end. I'm afraid it may have come out disjointed or incomprehensible, lol. (Plus, you probably won't believe me when I say this, but I really hate monster paragraphs that refuse to be broken up. Which this chapter was just chock full of. I did try my best, though.) I think honestly I needed a couple more months on this chapter to make it flow right, eheh.

Anyway, some notes as always (sorry for these long author's notes XD; you don't have to read them, especially if you're not picky about details): Again, logistics... ick. I admit, some of the descriptions of where things are may not seem to exactly match what's in the book. This is mainly because I couldn't figure out how things were arranged exactly. For instance, it sounds at some points like the wooden dock was wheeled over the pit, and then the trap door in the dock would open and let the captive fall into the flames, while other times it seems to say the dock is "in" the pit. I'm also pretty sure Holly's cage is supposed to be in front of where Kronski and Artemis are in their podiums, although I'm not sure it ever says this directly.

But for a lot of reasons, most of which would be too tedious to go into, I set it up this way instead, with Holly behind them. For starters, Holly's cage isn't a small one (because Artemis and Kronski have to fall into it and kind of fight inside it later), so if the cage was in front of where Artemis and Kronski were facing, then either their podiums would have to be really high or the cage really low, the second of which I rejected by deciding to go with the image of Holly's dock being rolled over the pit and not actually inside it. Otherwise it would be more like they were facing the cage rather than the audience, which would have felt odd to me.

So, I guess the point of this rambling explanation is, for future reference, I do want to be as true to canon as I can, but when there are bits I have trouble reconciling, I will just do each one whatever way fits best. Most of you probably don't notice these things anyway, if you're like me when you read a book. (;

Wow! So much response last chapter! (at least in terms of this story, lol) Thank you so, so much for reviewing, I really appreciate it; it's a big encouragement. Hope to hear from you, if you like. (:

Posted: 1/24/12


	24. The Cliff Option

Disclaimer: The characters, much of the dialogue, and sadly, even the plot are not mine; they all belong to Eoin Colfer.

Pages: 253 – 258

Chapter 23: The Cliff Option

Artemis stepped out from behind his podium, and Holly caught sight of a particular gleam in his eye. That was a look she had seen before. Not when the boy seemed on the verge of defeat or he'd been backed into a corner, but when his plans reached the critical moment, when everything had fallen into place.

Kronski clearly believed that his victory was assured as the crowd continued to cheer, so the doctor missed the ominous note in "Pasteur's" tone when, as the clamor died away, the young man said, "I was hoping to spare you this, Doctor. Because I respect you so much."

"Spare me what, Master Pasteur?" said Kronski, sounding less than inclined to start quaking in his boots behind his podium. Empty threats, bluffs – or so the doctor must be thinking.

"You know what," said Artemis coolly. "I think you have pulled the wool over everyone's eyes long enough."

After his successful prosecution of 'the creature,' Kronski seemed almost buoyant now, just short of bouncing up and down on the balls of his fee with excitement. "And what wool would that be?" he asked, almost tauntingly.

"Are you certain you want me to continue?"

"Oh, absolutely certain," replied Kronski, smiling, without a sliver of doubt.

Of course, Kronski obviously had no idea the resources his opponent held at his disposal, not least of which exclusive information concerning Kronski's recent activities, or the man would not have felt so secure.

Artemis finally turned and started toward Holly slowly, leisurely. "This creature was not our original defendant," he said, gesturing toward her though still not meeting her gaze. "Up until yesterday we had a lemur..."

As Artemis continued reeling off the truth behind the whole situation, the quick switch-in of Holly instead of the lemur that got away, both sold to the Extinctionists by the same boy, Kronski grew noticeably paler, but did not lose his composure.

"This boy keeps his lemur and sells us a supposed fairy," concluded Artemis, stopping a short distance from the wooden dock, and wheeling around to face Kronski once more.

"_Supposed_ fairy?" said the doctor, trying to sound insulted, but unable to completely keep out the tremor of creeping anxiety now.

"That's right," replied Artemis dispassionately. "Supposed. We have only your word for it, and of course that of Mr. Kirkenhazard, who apparently is your worst enemy. Nobody is falling for the ruse, I assure you."

Holly wanted to laugh at that. So this must have been Artemis's backup strategy – or perhaps it had been his design from the very beginning. As she might of expected of Artemis, if this plan succeeded she would not only be saved but the fairy people would not be revealed. Although, she did have to wonder how he would convince the Extinctionists she was a fraudulent article when she wasn't.

"Examine the thing yourself," spluttered Kronski in tones of indignant outrage, once again talking as though he was a used car salesman, and she the used car he was attempting to sell that had just been accused of not running properly. "This is an easy argument to win."

"Thank you, Doctor. I believe I shall."

This was apparently the moment Artemis had been waiting for. Promptly turning back around, he stepped up to the cage, though stopping short just a few feet before he reached it.

Holly watched him, but though he was so close he had yet to actually look at her directly. She could not help but wait for the moment when he would, even if it was a bit pathetic.

Artemis reached into his pocket and withdrew his phone.

Hooking up the phone wirelessly to the laptops on the podiums, Artemis tapped a few keys so that the enormous screen on the back wall switched from Holly in her cage to a view through Artemis's phone. When Artemis moved the phone so that the camera fell on his own hand, instead of the thin, bony vampire-white fingers, a dark skeletal hand appeared, standing out against the pale gray outline of Artemis's actual hand. An X-raying device of some kind.

Holly could see what Artemis's plan was now from here. This had to be one of Artemis's better ideas, and that was saying something. It was so simple, yet ruthlessly cunning.

Kronski was getting impatient. "Do you have a point, Pasteur, or are you just showing us how clever you are?"

"Oh, I have a point, Doctor," replied Artemis. "And that point is, that were it not for the width of the brow and the pointed ears, this creature seems remarkably like a little girl."

"A pity about the ears and the brow," sneered Kronski. "But for them you would have an argument."

"Precisely."

Then, Artemis shifted the phone's camera from his hand and pointed it directly at Holly.

For a moment, she was too small on the screen for the audience to see much, then Artemis hit a button and the screen was suddenly filled with a straight-on view of Holly's face. To most, it probably appeared as though Artemis had hit a setting to magnify the image of the camera, but Holly couldn't help but notice there were no metal bars in this image – perhaps the implication was that with an X-ray, non-organic materials would not appear or some such thing, not that she knew too much about it as non-essential technologies in regard to her missions she thought were generally best left to Foaly, but it might have looked at least a little suspicious to anyone who was paying attention.

However, it didn't seem anybody was. They were all too busy staring at the dark shapes around Holly's temple and ears shown on the screen of what Holly suspected was simply a pre-fabricated video clip. No doubt Artemis had chosen that exact spot to stand in order to get the correct angle on her skull.

Holly concentrated on not moving so as to match the image on-screen as Artemis cried out triumphantly, "Implants. Clearly the result of surgery. This _fairy_ is a clever fake." He turned to the doctor as he shut off the X-ray camera function, the image on the big screen reverting to the video being fed from the camera mounted on the cage, though his phone was still connected to the laptop, accusation plain in every line of his face. "You have tried to dupe us, Kronski."

The reaction was immediate. As Kronski tried to argue his innocence, the affronted voices of the Extinctionists rose above him, furious with this betrayal.

Kronski turned up the volume on his mike to be heard above the furor, pleading with the crowd. "This boy, Pasteur, is lying," he insisted desperately. "My fairy is real. Just give me a chance to prove it."

"I have not finished, Doctor," said Artemis heartlessly, still in that calm, logical tone that made one have to believe he was well-informed, though his voice had now risen a bit more than was usual in the excitement of his attack. A little like a wild dog just about to finally sink its teeth into the neck of its prey, Holly thought, but in Kronski's case Holly was perfectly okay with that.

"These ears do not seem right to me," Artemis continued, taking a final step that put him right up by the cage sitting in the dock. "And your friend Mr. Kirkenhazard was most gentle with them."

Artemis reached into the cage. Holly just caught a glimpse of a nu skin bandage concealed in his palm and she knew again exactly what he meant to do.

The nu skin patches were a piece of fairy medical equipment, bandages that could be adhered to the skin over injuries to stop the bleeding, but unlike regular bandages would take on the color and feel of the skin it was attached to so they would be less obvious.

She felt Artemis's hand against her ear, spreading the patch around to disguise the point. As he did so, he pretended to be exerting a great effort to pull the end of the ear off.

"It's coming away," he said in a strained voice. "I have it."

Only moving her eyes, Holly shot a worried glance toward the camera mounted on the cage, wondering if it would give away what Artemis was really doing. But Artemis's arm blocked her and so was probably also blocking the audience's view of her ear.

As Holly thought about this, her eyes moved automatically back to "Pasteur's" face as he concentrated on what he was doing. So it startled her when at that precise moment, Artemis unexpectedly lowered his gaze and his eyes at last met hers.

Two blue eyes, she noticed, he must have been wearing a colored contact.

Slowly, surreptitiously he closed one eye in a wink, though the rest of his expression didn't change so much as a muscle. It felt a bit strange actually, seeing Artemis make such a friendly, casual gesture after that powerful speech, as though she had forgotten that he really wasn't a young Extinctionist trying to discredit Kronski so he would have a shot at taking the leadership position. Or maybe it was just seeing Artemis make a friendly gesture, period.

Holly looked back at him with no apparent reaction as she interpreted the silent message. _I have them right where I want them,_ he seemed to say._ Now you play your part._

Holly remembered back to when she had been last with him over a day ago in the cham pod, an age ago now, and even before that when they were still on the shuttle.

"_Not sure, Holly." _

"_I would be more comfortable with this..." _

Ever since he had confessed to her about the blackmail, he had been displaying a lack of confidence on a level that was unusual for him. So in a way, it was good to see Artemis back to his usual, arrogant self. The other un-Artemis-like attitude was a little creepy, like there was a gear off in the inner workings of the world.

Holly was flooded with an unexpected wave of relief. And for some reason, she realized suddenly she felt safe. She was far from free from this mess, but for the first time since Artemis had appeared before her in this place, she was filled with an absolute certainty they would get out. All she had to do was whatever Artemis wanted her to do, and everything would work out fine; Artemis couldn't be beaten.

_I would honestly jump off a cliff if he said it would save us,_ she thought, bemused with herself, but it didn't stop the sudden rush of elation of before from stealing through her again, the feeling that Artemis was invincible. Because, by extension, she as his ally was also invincible.

The emotion was so overpowering and so sudden, if she'd been able to and there hadn't been a room of ravenous Extinctionists sitting there watching, she honestly might have leaned up and kissed him again right then.

_Thank goodness my mouth is taped._

However, her rapture was destined to be short-lived as something dawned on her and she mentally repeated with growing horror, _Play my part? _Her eyebrows drew together like magnets as suddenly what Artemis must be expecting her to do became all too obvious.

Oh, how irritating it was to think that all that practice during her LEP training had actually come in handy so many times in her career already, probably eighty percent of those somehow related to schemes of Artemis's. Now here she was, going to play the poor, defenseless victim yet again – Why she allowed Artemis to maneuver her into these situations over and over she hadn't the slightest idea, but privately she thought she would have preferred the cliff option.

* * *

><p>AN: Sorry, a bit of a short chapter. Next chapter should be up soon though; I worked on both this one and the next as kind of like one, since I know you're all probably anxious to get out of the Extinctionists' compound already. (;

Thanks for reviewing! Hope to hear from you. (:

Posted 1/29/12


	25. Shirking Responsibility

Disclaimer: The characters, much of the dialogue, and sadly, even the plot are not mine; they all belong to Eoin Colfer.

Pages: 253 – 267

Chapter 24: Shirking Responsibility

Holly was still mentally sulking when Artemis turned back to the crowd of Extinctionists. He held up a second nu skin bandage before them which had been folded into a point, pretending that it was Holly's "phony" tapered ear.

"It's a fake," he announced. "It came off in my hand."

Holly turned so the camera on her cage would display whatever Artemis had done. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her own head on the back wall screen. Thanks to the nu skin adhesive, it appeared as though her ear had been stretched and the end torn off; Artemis had certainly done a convincing job for such an awkward angle and simultaneously pretending to be doing something entirely different.

The Extinctionists were aroused anew, doubly furious with Kronski now. It didn't matter whether Kronski had deceived them or been deceived – He had still failed them.

Artemis's fist tightened around the skin-colored material as though holding up a trophy, before driving home his attack.

"Is this the man we want to lead us?" he demanded of the crowd. "Has Dr. Kronski displayed sound judgment in this case?"

Artemis threw the bandage down hard with apparent anger, where it fell with a splash in the water pit near one of the dead fish, before he continued, "And _supposedly_ this creature can hypnotize us all. I rather think her mouth is covered so she cannot speak."

Holly had spent the last several hours thinking she would be enormously glad to get the restrictive, itchy strip removed from her mouth, but almost changed her mind when Artemis reached into the cage a second time and tore it off hard with one deft movement.

As much as she knew it was only appropriate for someone pretending to be an Extinctionist to be anything but gentle, the pain was enough to make her eyes water like mad and she couldn't help but send "Pasteur" a poisonous look.

However, now was not the time for that. She knew almost exactly what Artemis wanted from her and as much as she didn't want to, she knew she didn't have much of a choice. And if she had to do it, she supposed she might as well go all out: If these Extinctionists loved drama so much, she would give them plenty.

Using the tears stinging her eyes to add to her look of torment, Holly bowed her head in apparent despair and allowed her face to crumple. Her performance was additionally fueled by the thought of the look on Kronski's face as he realized what was happening.

"I didn't want to do it," she said in tearful, broken tones.

"Do what?" Artemis asked, sounding rather like an interviewer for a documentary. If she had really been in distress, Holly could not help but think that this particular young man would not have been the person to go to.

"Dr. Kronski took me from the orphanage," she said. That should be good. Orphanage stories were always bound to pull at the heartstrings, no matter what species the audience was.

She thought she saw the barest flicker in Artemis's face, something between exasperation and amusement at the cliché, but it was so faint and gone so quickly Holly doubted anyone but she had noticed. They were all too focused on her.

Artemis said nothing and waited for her to continue.

"He told me if I had the implants, then I could live in America," said Holly, the utter load of cock flowing easily now that she was in full swing, feigning a dry sob now and then to add to the effect. "After the operation I changed my mind, but the doctor wouldn't let me go."

"An orphanage. Why, that's bordering on the unbelievable." Artemis's tone had just that hint of what appeared to be skepticism on the surface, but actually came across more as something like curiosity, even fascination. Subtle, but effective in channeling the audience's view, who would also naturally be inclined to be dubious, but just as surely couldn't help but be drawn in.

Although, Holly noticed, the crowd didn't seem as moved by the possibility that a mutilated little girl was sitting in a cage in front of them on the verge of being slaughtered as an animal as they were by the realization Kronski may have lied to them. However, this little charade of hers was still necessary, to make sure all the Extinctionists were completely persuaded the 'fairy' was a sham.

Holly knew what she had to say next, what Artemis had probably been intending from the beginning.

"He said he'd kill me if I told," she said, sounding as though struggling not to break down into tears again. She was really laying it on thick now.

As she had guessed, this was just what Artemis had been wanting. He moved at last to strike the decisive blow.

"He said he'd kill you," said Artemis, voice almost deadly, low and quivering slightly with righteous anger. "And this is the man steering our organization. A man who hunts humans as well as animals." He could almost make them feel the monstrosity of it with his voice alone, just as Kronski had done, only this had the power of logic to reinforce it. Artemis suddenly whirled around to jab a finger at Kronski, like a witness identifying the perpetrator of a crime from the testifier's stand. Now for the final line to wrap up their little production.

"You, sir, are worse than the creatures we all despise, and I demand you release this poor girl."

Kronski, meanwhile, had a rather stupid look on his face, like he'd just been hit over the head by a two-by-four.

Holly was satisfied. She'd been right about Artemis's plan. After all, he had had to have a reason for goading Kronski right from the beginning the way he did. At first it had seemed as though he had done it only to further deepen his cover by appearing like any other wealthy, power-hungry Extinctionist, and to provide a believable excuse for why he would want to defend 'the creature,' but surely there could have been less risky ways to accomplish the same objectives.

Ultimately it's primary purpose had been to serve as bait for Kronski, to lure the doctor into making that veiled death threat of saying that Artemis tread on dangerous ground – killing was this man's solution to everything after all – and so effectively plant the idea of what kind of man Kronski was in the minds of the audience early on, making it only natural to accept Artemis's accusations now.

When rational thought seemed to return to Kronski, he looked like he was wondering how to best make his escape.

But then he blinked – A light bulb moment, apparently. The Neutrino, which had been hanging limply from Kronski's thick fingers for quite some time now, was suddenly under scrutiny.

"If the gun is real, then the creature is real," reasoned Kronski, having leveled the weapon directly at Artemis, deciding he would test the weapon's authenticity by seeing if "Mr. Pasteur" dropped dead or not. In the process proving, as far as Holly was concerned, the whole 'man who hunts humans' thing beyond all shadow of a doubt, but the Extinctionists didn't seem unduly bothered about that.

Holly knew she ought to have had a moment of worry then, but this time she felt sure that Artemis would have thought of this. He thought of everything, after all, so she predicted the doctor's final attempt to regain his respect was going to backfire.

And indeed, the Neutrino failed to work. Artemis must have destroyed it from the shuttle, between when Kronski had come to see her earlier some time before the banquet and when the banquet actually started.

"It's broken," cried Kronski in shock.

Artemis's response was to sneer derisively. "You don't say."

One almost had to feel sorry for the doctor. And maybe Holly would, once she was out of this cage and her bonds safely off.

Artemis and Kronski argued a bit back and forth, Kronski still busy being in a daze over what had happened as Artemis worked to convince the doctor to free Holly. So Holly, sensing her acting role was now over, began trying to get a look at the manacles securing her arms to the chair armrests, looking for the keyholes and alternatively trying to decide just how much force it would take and/or what tools would be needed to saw them off if it came to that.

However, the odd sound of cell phones going off made her forget what she was doing. What caught Holly's attention was that it wasn't just one, or even a few. It suddenly sounded like every Extinctionist in the place had a cell phone, and every single one was ringing, all mingling together in a kind of chorus of clashing songs and low-toned buzzing.

Holly looked up. Was this part of Artemis's strategy too?

However, the false Extinctionist looked anxious, a slight frown creasing his brow. Evidently this was an unforeseen turn of events, perhaps even one that could interfere with all the pieces of this plan he had put together so far. Although, Holly had to think that any distraction could only be of help them, like Minerva's scheme at the opera to capture Nº1.

Artemis glanced at his open phone, which was vibrating like many of the others. Almost as soon as he did, the phone, still connected to the laptops, began to play the message being sent to everyone in the room automatically, overriding the cage camera image once again so that the content of the mail, a short video file, was now on the large back wall screen for everyone to see.

Holly watched the screen for a moment. Strangely, it appeared to be a recording of Kronski balancing on one leg like a stork, screaming shrilly. For a moment all she could do was stare blankly, the picture simply too unprecedented for her to form any kind of immediate response. Instead, her eyes moved automatically down to read the text scrolling across the bottom of the screen, a bit of dry, humorous commentary on the episode unfolding above.

Holly noticed what looked like colored liquid flying around the doctor in the image where he stood and realized that this could only be the scene from the leather souk. Who in the world had had time to shoot a video?

In any case, it was obvious this was a ploy to completely annihilate Kronski's career. Annihilate, and stamp any leftover pieces into a pulp, to leave the doctor with not a single follower now or ever. It seemed a bit childish really, but no one could argue it wasn't effective, and Holly had to admit Kronski didn't deserve anything less.

Holly glanced at Artemis. It was a tricky, clever thing. This certainly had to be part of his scheme; perhaps he was feigning surprise because some of the Extinctionists were still watching him. However, he sighed slightly and appeared genuinely troubled, so much so that he seemed a bit distracted from his original purpose.

Holly glanced around them, and soon saw that all the Extinctionists' eyes seemed to be trained either on the screen or on their phones. If there was ever a time to silently take their leave of this horrid place, now was it.

Holly turned back to the tall human in front of her with his well-combed dark hair, and gave him a few seconds to remember her existence. When he didn't, she whispered peevishly, "Artemis, get me out of here."

So much for the "You came/of course I came" scenario.

"Yes, of course," said Artemis, snapping out of it, all business now. "Time to go."

Artemis was ready with some handy hair lock-picks courtesy of Mulch Diggums (another dwarf talent that seemed suspiciously tailor-made by nature for breaking and entering), and in moments he had opened the cage door and unlocked Holly's metal cuffs.

Every part of her body felt sore and stiff, but being free at last worked wonders on the wellbeing of her mind. Despite her hunger, aching limbs, and the general physical weakness of having her body so poorly cared for for over a day, she was ready to fight if she had to. Adrenaline was pumping through her now, giving her a badly-needed energy boost, granting her renewed vitality, at least for the moment.

"Orphanage?" said Artemis, quirking an eyebrow and, as usual, displaying his extraordinary lack of sentimentality or sensitivity given the circumstances. "You don't think that was overdoing it?"

While Holly had to admit she did generally prefer less expression of touchy-feely sentiments, mindless blubbering, effusive displays, etc. if at all possible, in this case she wouldn't have minded seeing a little more relief in his face over the fact that his friend wasn't charred barbecue right now.

"Boo-hoo," Holly replied brusquely, returning his nonchalant attitude with her own pointed lack of special enthusiasm at having been spectacularly rescued from the jaws of death. "Let's just get back to the shuttle."

Holly and Artemis hid behind the cage, looking for an opportunity to escape. However, there was such confusion that for a while they could do little more than watch the scene unfold, especially since the sharpshooters were still keeping watch on the upper level, even if at this point they seemed at a loss as to what they should be doing.

Kronski was at the moment being harassed by the Extinctionists in the crowd as the message continued to play in an endless loop on the enormous back screen. The rabble refused to listen to anything he said, crowding around him and physically pushing and shoving at him. This went on until all of a sudden it seemed that the doctor had finally had enough.

Kronski roughly shoved his way through the group surrounding him and, after saying a few words into a walkie-talkie, the gunmen on the second tier fired a few rounds.

All the bullets shot harmlessly over their heads. But if these were meant to intimidate the crowd into behaving or calming down, it failed abysmally. In fact, the sound of the shots sent such a wave of terror through the mob that soon everything dissolved into chaos.

Kronski had apparently ordered his guards to block the exits as the big, truculent men went around shutting doors and windows with a series of bangs and clatters, standing in front of all possible outlets to further trap the banquet attendees, holding their rifles threateningly.

What Kronski hoped to accomplish, Holly didn't know. Maybe he was trying to teach them a lesson, or maybe he'd just snapped. Either way, the pandemonium was in one sense a blessing as it meant everyone would have completely forgotten their trial fairy and her smooth-talking defense attorney. However, without any clear way out it was also going to make it just as hard for them to escape as the Extinctionists.

At the moment, the Extinctionists were currently flowing toward one of the only openings, where one Extinctionist with some martial arts knowledge he probably ordinarily used for wrestling down big exotic animals had overcome one of Kronski's guards. However, the doorway was so packed with Extinctionists trying to escape that still only a trickle seemed able to get through that way.

"Can you shield?" Artemis wanted to know, eyes still carefully scanning the scene for an opening.

Holly checked. "I'm low on juice," she said after a moment. "I have just about enough for a minute or two. I've been saving it."

The muscles in Artemis's face tightened subtly with displeasure. "You are always low on juice," he said, in the sort of disapproving tone one might use if talking to a particularly unreliable employee caught regularly shirking a given responsibility. "Didn't Nº1 fill you up with his signature magic?"

Holly, not appreciating getting chastised for something out of her control, especially when she had just barely avoided being ceremonially executed via pit of fire a few minutes before, replied waspishly, "Maybe if your bodyguard hadn't plugged me with a dart – twice. Maybe if I hadn't had to heal you at Rathdown Park. And maybe if I hadn't been shielding in the souk, trying to find your monkey."

"Lemur," corrected Artemis automatically. Then, in a slightly warmer tone, he added, "At least we saved Jayjay."

Holly was forced to stop her surveying of the area for an escape route and duck for cover as a shower of glass debris from one of the gunshots hit the cage and flew past it.

She turned her eyes momentarily on her partner, surprised. However, still miffed by the 'low on juice' comment, she said a bit snidely, "My goodness, Artemis. You sound like you actually care about an animal. Nice beard, by the way."

Rather than annoyance, a flicker of amusement he tried to suppress passed across the teenager's face. "Thank you." However, he was soon serious again. "Now, do you think you could shield for long enough to disarm those two guards on the kitchen door behind us?"

"Shouldn't be a problem," said Holly, after taking one look over the two massive, troll-like guards standing sentry by the double doors.

Artemis nodded. "Good. Do it quietly. We don't want another bottleneck." For a moment, his blue eyes seemed to bore into hers, not worried exactly, but not the usual inexorable confidence either. "If we do get separated, let's meet somewhere close," he said. "At the souk."

"Okay," she agreed. Holly supposed now wasn't the time to nurse a bad mood over a lack of appreciation, not when things were so dangerous. There would be plenty of time for verbal sparring later. Hopefully.

Holly activated her shield and made to turn away so she could start toward the kitchen. But then she hesitated, her teeth digging into her lower lip. Her eyes moved back to Artemis for a second, and she studied the serious expression on his face. At the moment, his concentration was absolute, thinking all the time about everything, observing every detail of all that was going on around him as ever.

She realized that moments like this were the only times she was really safe from Artemis's piercing gaze, those mismatched eyes that seemed to see everything, even straight into her mind. When she was invisible, she could watch him without worry that he was coming up with some contrived scheme that somehow involved her, or that her expression was giving her thoughts away. Whether she was doubting him, resenting him, impressed by him, or...

For just a moment, Holly was tempted to do something incredibly stupid before they parted ways. She leaned forward just slightly, peering into his face as he turned her way briefly to look toward the kitchen, her own steady inhaling and exhaling loud in her ears despite the high-speed vibration.

But then, instead, she shifted her head slightly to the side and put one invisible hand briefly on the shoulder of his suit-jacket. Hoping he could feel the real gratitude in her tone as she had felt his at Rathdown Park, she breathed the gentle words directly into his ear, "You came for me. Thank you."

Then she was off.

* * *

><p>AN: Not much to say this time (besides the annoying technical notes, of course), I guess, except that this chapter's been kind of fun for me to work on. I need to remind myself to lighten things up more often, eheh. Oh, but on a random note, I wonder if next chapter will put this fanfiction over a hundred thousand words. If not next chapter, then definitely with chapter twenty-six. (: I'm kind of excited about it actually, since there are so few AF fanfictions that are that long.

NOTES: About the nu skin patches thing, there's something from the original TTP that I had some trouble with. When Artemis does that trick, he puts the bandage over Holly's ear to cover up the point obviously, but the other never actually touches Holly's skin if I'm understanding right.

That is, Artemis makes it into a cone to make it appear as though he tore off the tip of her ear. But Artemis and Holly's skin tone isn't anywhere near the same, so wouldn't the cone have taken on Artemis's skin tone, not Holly's? (Then it wouldn't look as though it had come off Holly's ear...) I puzzled about it and how I was going to describe that here, but I couldn't understand the whole unless it was just a minor error, so I just decided to gloss over that part a bit. I admit I might be missing something though...

Thank you so much for reviewing! If you have time, please tell me what you think. (:

Posted 1/31/12


	26. Cornered Prey

Disclaimer: The characters, much of the dialogue, and sadly, even the plot are not mine; they all belong to Eoin Colfer.

Pages: 267 – 269, 275 – 279

Chapter 25: Cornered Prey

The next few chaotic minutes passed in a blur for Holly. She dashed across the hall, forced to duck and weave to avoid panicked Extinctionists running in every direction.

However, above the ruckus Holly was just able to make out the whistling of metal projectiles whizzing through the air and the small 'thwk, thwk' as they buried themselves in flesh. She realized that Kronski's guards standing in front of the exits were dropping one by one and, somehow, Holly realized almost immediately who was behind it.

She turned her head and was able to catch sight of an enormous figure crouching in the rafters overlooking the scene like a hawk, with eyes just as keen, holding a dart rifle pointed at the melee below. Though a rough khaki desert blanket concealed his head and shoulders, Holly had had too much experience with Artemis's bodyguard over the years not to recognize him.

Butler had shown up to help them. But had he felt compelled to do it by his own will, or did little Artemis decide he had nothing to lose with sending Butler to help them now that he had his money?

Holly could not help just the hint of a smile that spread across her face as she ducked under yet another flailing arm. The little double-crosser.

Holly moved in to incapacitate the two guards by the kitchen, but they were already downed by a couple well-aimed darts from Butler by the time she got into position. However, the opening wasn't free for long as the mass of well-dressed Extinctionists surged forward, high-pitched screams so loud and sustained that they seemed to rise and blur together like the roar of an ocean wave, and every bit as unstoppable.

Holly was nervous. Well, relatively speaking, as she had had a feeling of chronic anxiety that had never really gone away since she'd first arrived in little Artemis's study a couple of days ago. The last thing they needed was to remain trapped in here while all the Extinctionists got out and until either the authorities arrived or the crazed Damon Kronski noticed his fake fairy and the effective undoer of his entire career trying to make a run for it, and decided he did kill humans after all and didn't care who knew it.

Holly stood by the entrance to the kitchen, spinning back around quickly to face the direction she and Artemis had been concealed behind the cage. However, she could not pick Artemis out amidst the wall of approaching Extinctionists, though she knew he must be there. Within the last second she still had before the Extinctionists would reach the kitchen, her eyes scanned over the crowd a final time, desperate to locate her partner, but all she had time to register was the sea of expressions twisted and grotesque with terror, and in an instant they were upon her.

The Extinctionists were apparently too intent on getting out to notice their limbs striking against a short, invisible form as they poured through the kitchen double doors like ants from an anthill, knocking the elephant feet champagne coolers every which way as they stormed past and sending ice and wine spilling everywhere.

Holly was forced backward into the kitchen, crammed in the midst of the crowd rushing past her, knees and elbows striking her again and again as she struggled against the endless supply of bodies towering above her.

Holly found herself suddenly reminded of one of those Mud Men movies from Foaly's collection the centaur had once forced her to watch a portion of. It had been one of those films supposedly sympathetic toward the animals' side of things, which the humans invariably got entirely wrong, but there was one scene in particular that she remembered.

In it, a baby lion had been tricked into going into a kind of wide canyon, where he was soon met with an enormous charging stampede of panicked wildebeests. She felt like that little baby lion now, trying to dodge the wild stamping hooves beating around her, all the while small and helpless against the movement of the dense crowd of immense forms so much taller than she was and blinded to everything but the powerful hot bodies pressing in on her, unable to escape.

"Artemis," she called, almost desperately, once again feeling herself being consumed with that sense of confusion, of crippling weakness she had had just before the episode in the gorilla cage. That insecurity of a child feeling helpless to do anything herself, but also with that same childlike sense of trust, of just knowing she would know what to do as soon as she was reunited with the one she could rely on. "Artemis!"

The fact that it didn't even occur to her that Artemis wouldn't be able to see her even if he could have somehow heard her voice amidst the violent storm of noise roaring around her showed perhaps how much the day's events had taken their toll on her. It felt like exhaustion and hunger had fried her brain; however, there wasn't any space in her mind to think about that now. All she could focus on at the moment was that she needed to find the person who had saved her from this mess, who had been with her from the beginning of his fiasco.

Holly fought against the wave of Extinctionists buffeting against her, trying to keep her wits about her as she did so. If she panicked, she was liable to get a limb twisted or broken in the struggle. She pushed her way back through the crowd, concentrating carefully on weaving her way a through the forest of Extinctionist torsos against the flow.

It seemed to take an age, but finally she reached the end and burst out from between two huffing and wheezing figures, stumbling forward a few steps. For a second she was disoriented.

A quick dazed look around told her she was back in the banquet hall. The room was, for the most part, cleared out except for one or two Extinctionists who had lagged behind. Even Kronski's guards were gone except for the ones who had been knocked unconscious.

The place was almost eerily quiet now, with that sort of "after party" atmosphere, the uniquely wistful, even melancholy sense of a room that had been filled with voices and lively chatter only a little earlier, but was now totally devoid of all excitement, of life. Dead.

Perhaps, she thought vaguely, the empty, lifeless look about it would be better compared to the site of a battle after the fighting was long over then. The elegant round tables lay broken and overturned all over the room, while puddles of liquid from drinks and coolers spreading over the tiles made it look like the place had just been doused in a light rain. Shards of glass and half-melted ice cubes lay everywhere, and it was hard to tell which was which. Yes, it was like a battlefield. A battlefield where the battle was over, but the cleanup of the bodies had yet to commence.

This building certainly wasn't going to be used for anymore social functions anytime soon.

Holly barely had to glance at the place to see that Artemis wasn't there, and she clamped down immediately on the tingle of nerves that shivered down her spine. Artemis had obviously been among the crowd of Extinctionists and gotten past Holly without either of them noticing – not all that hard a thing to do, considering what a confused mess that had been. This was precisely why Artemis had set up a meeting place beforehand. Artemis thought of everything.

Holly frowned slightly, deciding she would blame this rather pathetic dependence on Artemis on her adolescent body. Her considerable knowledge and experience was only failing to reassure her because her physical appearance was interfering, making her feel the way an untrained adolescent would.

Or so she rationalized to herself as she turned toward the nearest exit.

But as Holly sprinted toward a broken door half hanging off its hinges, ready to head for the souk, she couldn't help but recall the Zito probe incident, and the battle at the museum before they had gone to Hybras. That longstanding natural inclination to constantly turn to Artemis for solutions when things got to be too much, as though he were a genie who could magically fix any difficulty through his genius alone.

Holly wondered what her excuse was back then.

* * *

><p>Holly was almost out of magic by the time she was out of the main conference center and passing beneath the compound entrance archway. She had no choice but to find some cover and let down her shield to save what blessed little she had left.<p>

However, the whole universe was apparently conspiring against her as almost the moment she returned to the open, dashing at full tilt in the direction of the souk, she heard the cocking of a weapon. A quick glance back over her shoulder told her at least one of Kronski's men had caught sight of her as he spoke rapidly into a clunky gray walkie-talkie.

_Oh great._

Holly sped up. She expected a volley of shots behind her any moment, but the guards must not have been ordered to shoot as she heard the pounding of many heavy feet bearing large, well-muscled bodies, but thankfully no gunfire.

By now it was late into the evening and darkness was cast over everything. Not too many people were still out and about at this hour besides a few more hardcore merchants and tourists. However, 'not many' meant that there were still a fair share of witnesses to this bizarre scene like something straight from an action film unfolding right down the middle of the street.

The tourists and salesmen alike goggled as what appeared to be a young, dark-skinned girl in a long black dress with one pointed ear and one half-ripped off tore through the obstacle course that was the center of town in Fez, dodging between bystanders as she was pursued by a whole crew of huge, supremely dangerous-looking thuggish characters wielding enormous knives.

The little girl was, at the moment, shamelessly wreaking havoc in her escape attempt using the merchants' wares she passed, pulling and knocking things over as she ran in a desperate effort to slow down the guards.

Holly flatly ignored the angry shouts of merchants swearing at her in French and Arabic, as well as the tourists continuing to stare at her and the guards storming through with abject fascination, some even pointing in excitement. However, it was perhaps a wasted effort anyway, as she was finding that destroying every shop along her path did not seem to be helping her situation much. The men after her were too big and built too powerfully to even be inconvenienced by her small, haphazard attempts to impede them.

Holly realized early on she wasn't going to be able to lose the guards by flat-out outrunning them. She was fast and had always been in excellent physical condition even as an adolescent, so even now her breathing was fairly even; however, unlike their employer, these men of Kronski's were just as athletic or more so. They were large, yes, but most of that was probably solid muscle.

Within a split second, Holly decided instead she would try the alleyways. Prey almost always had the advantage in maze-like settings. She just had to make enough turns where the hunters didn't know which way she went, and eventually she'd shake them.

At least, that was the plan. But as it turned out, this idea was flawed for several reasons.

Tourists watched the elf with something like avid wonder as though this were a skit set up for their entertainment as Holly took a turn so sharply she actually had to put a hand on the ground and scramble to keep her balance as she forced herself upright again. In less than a second she had disappeared into one of the back alleys, her slim fingers forming spades that sliced the air as she pumped her limbs ever onward, black dress streaming out behind her. She was delighted to find the abaya not so much of an obstruction in a sprint as she had supposed.

But despite her speed and rapid-fire quick turns, still everywhere she went as she tried to weave her way through to the souk she could hear the voices and shouts of the guards emanating from every direction, as though at this very moment she was surrounded by a swarm of their angry ghosts, all sweeping after her like clouds of fog. And she knew it wasn't just her imagination – as big a maze as this was, they really were everywhere, in position to block off one escape route after another, as though she was a rat in a lab.

Of course, she realized her two main mistakes almost from the moment she entered the alleys. One, most likely these were men Kronski had hired locally, so they knew this area far better than she did. Two, all Kronski's guards were connected via walkie-talkie. That meant they had the advantage because they could easily cooperate to capture 'the creature.' Holly knew so because in being a recon officer for LEP, she was usually the one communicating tactics with a team to catch stray fairies on the surface.

Ironically, it seemed their strategy was to chase Holly directly into the souk. It was easy to see why: the souk was a wide open space, and so the perfect place for boxing in and ensnaring prey.

The hard pounding of Holly's heart increased its tempo even more as she realized this, and she felt her strides lengthen, her feet beating the ground so hard she felt each jarring impact up her thighs. She was knocking things over again and pushing people out of her way as she headed ever faster toward the leather souk, knowing it was exactly what they wanted, knowing it would leave her trapped, and knowing she was leading the whole lot of them right to Artemis, but not knowing what else to do.

The only thing that was clear was that somehow she had to get to Artemis. Without Artemis, there was no hope.

Holly turned down another alley, but was stopped by the sight of a virtual wall of bulky guards holding their weapons threateningly at the other end. Holly spun around mid-stride and shot off directly for the souk, aware she was running right into the enemies' clutches, but not seeing that she had any choice. No time to try to find a back entrance somewhere that would give her better concealment when she entered the expansive area of interlocking honeycomb patterns; she would just have to charge recklessly in and hope Artemis had a plan ready. At the very least they would have a much better chance of escape if they had an LEP-issue, nuclear-powered scooter to do the escaping on.

However, as Holly blasted into the souk and forced herself to come to a stop a moment later, kicking up a dust storm behind her, her eyes quickly scanned the open courtyard, finally flickering up to rest on their hiding place from the day before.

Her breathing quickened and Holly felt her heart pounding in her ears as she was hit with a realization, a cold certainty so strong it was almost as though she had known it all along.

Holly took a step back, eyes darting everywhere over the area of vats and urns and plinths for turning the skin of animals into leather for Mud Men to wear and make into bags and upholster seats, the place completely deserted but for a few workers here and there on the rooftops all around the souk.

Despite fairies' excellent night vision, Holly felt the darkness closing in around her, the low-hanging lanterns surrounding the souk only serving to cast an eerie glow on this horrible place. The smell of the pigeon droppings overpowered her for a moment, and she gagged, eyes watering.

Artemis was not here. What was she supposed to do?

Holly forced the gears in her brain to start turning again.

_Don't stop moving,_ she told herself. That was basic. And hide, perhaps she could hide. If only she could have tried to fight her way out, but without a weapon it was useless.

Frozen with fear, her body did not seem to want to start again, but she pushed her brain back into use and took off again. The souk was a wide open space certainly, but it was surrounded on all sides by exits. Doors, windows, alleys – surely she would be able to get out somewhere.

But as she dashed for the first door she saw in the tainted white wall surrounding the souk, one of the guards was already there waiting for her with a blade in hand that winked a dark crimson in the darkness. Perhaps it was only rust, but for just a moment, in the grinning yellow teeth glinting at her in the low lantern light she had an image of the demon Abbott, grinning down at her, six horns glittering atop his head.

She could almost see his enormous form, a giant among fairies, towering over her as he drew back his blade, just before he sank it deep into her chest, where she would fall to the ground, blood soaking the rock of the sulfuric, hellish isle of Hybras around her, running down off her liquid-resistant suit and pooling around her before the light faded from her eyes as she begged Artemis to help her...

Holly's pulse skyrocketed and she scrambled almost wildly in her effort to change her course, losing one of Artemis's shoes in the process.

Her entire upper body was tilted far forward as she bolted across the souk, continuing to keep close to the wall as she went, legs moving so fast they were almost a blur as she pushed herself to the very limit. Even in the dead of night, sweat broke out anew on her face, though whether it was from the exertion or her own terror, she didn't know.

Holly headed for a second floor window, ready to jump up and climb the wall. Two more guards built vaguely like upright rhinoceroses stood waiting for her in its frame, as though teleported there by sorcery. She turned and went for an alleyway just up ahead. Her path was blocked by yet another grinning guard.

Holly had no choice but to come to a stop, breathing hard. She was cornered. No way out.

It occurred to her more clearly than ever that there was not a single thing she could do. She didn't have enough magic to sustain a shield – No, forget that, she didn't even think she could use the _mesmer _when she was this drained.

Holly guessed she might have been able to produce a weak one if she really concentrated, or, if she dug out the real dregs, she might be able to do a minimal healing. Nothing serious like broken bones or ruptured organs though, so she had no idea how much good it could do her.

The _mesmer _on the other hand could have been useful as she might have had a chance at slowing them down somewhat with it, but getting a Mud Person under the spell was a delicate business at the best of times, and she guessed that the greed of these particular Mud Men would make them especially strong-willedand so consequently harder to entrance.

It didn't particularly matter at this point, however. They were all around her now and she would have only been able to spellbind one side at a time. By the time she had convinced half to step aside and let her pass, the ones storming up behind her would have her netted and be halfway back to Damon Kronski.

At the moment, Holly really was like one of those animals Kronski and the rest of the Extinctionists despised so much. A small, terrified animal surrounded on all sides by predators. She was a gazelle, a little bird, a mouse – breathing her last gasps as the lions, the snakes, the hawks all slowly closed in on her. Yes, highly trained LEP fairy though she was, she could do little more than any jittery little creature ruled its entire life by its instincts, now finding itself at a somehow fitting end for its short, brutal existence.

The guards crept in slowly, stalking ever closer as though hoping not to startle her, grinning broadly. Their arms were spread wide forming a rough, though unbroken circle around her and they hunched over slightly, not unlike the gorilla in Rathdown Park that had nearly killed Artemis. Their eyes gleamed in the darkness, teeth bared like a pack of wild wolves, so much so that it was almost like they were beasts and not sentient beings at all. The gorilla at Rathdown park had probably been more civilized than these men.

Holly retreated from them, moving backward in a sort of every-tightening spiral inward as she automatically tried to move away from her enemies and keep herself from exposing her back to any of them. But they were everywhere, all around her in that ever tightening, uneven circle.

Closer and closer they drew. Her death was closing in on her, slowly, painfully. Perhaps these men would not kill her right here, right now, but Kronski surely would. And death would probably come as a blessing after being in the hands of the these cruel, vicious Mud Men.

_No way out._

Holly would have liked to close her eyes and simply wait for the end to come. It was the only option really, the path that would lead to the least suffering at this point. Even a born survivor like Julius had had to just submit at some point, to give himself up for lost. He had died with a smile on his face, showing such strength even at the very end.

"_Be well."_

The memory, instead of allowing her to let go, to be strong like her commander, seemed to only drive Holly further into a corner. Commander Root had had such high hopes for her, and now she was going to die in a place like this. Give up? No. She couldn't. She didn't have someone standing nearby she had to be strong for in her final moments, to provide a need for her to have an expression of such peace on her face. All she had was her steel core that would refuse to let her succumb right up to the very last moment, and the heavy weight of her failures. If she had had the ability to be contented in death, she probably would have been dead long before this – Did that make her strong or weak?

Only one thought seemed to penetrate the mire of fear and already growing regret.

_Where are you, Artemis? Where are you?_

Holly finally turned her eyes from the filthy, grotesque faces of her assailants, grinning at her with mouths full of yellow, deteriorating jagged teeth, false gold ones scattered here and there winking in the dim light, the stench of the men's unwashed breath blowing across to her on the slight breeze. Instead, she stared up at the dark, star-speckled sky above as though Artemis's plan of rescue would descend from it at any second.

"Help," she pleaded in a desperate voice weak with fear, directing it at anyone and anything, because she was at the end of her own ingenuity now. She was out of ideas, of quick, haphazard plans. Now she was totally alone. She had no options left.

Her heart pounded like a jack rabbit's. Trapped. No way out.

But as she gazed up at the sky above, that final, desperate plea still warm on her lips, her salvation began to fall.

* * *

><p>AN: And now we're back to angst. I did enjoy working on this chapter, but I wish something funny would happen... (Well, funny for me anyway (; )

Heh heh, I bet a lot of you know what tortuous movie I was referring to that Foaly forced Holly to watch some of. (By the way, I love that movie, even if Holly thinks it's lame. :P) I really wanted to extend the metaphor further to what happens after the stampede... but I thought that might be a little much, lol.

Anyway, while I'm talking about that, I'll just mention I do know the book describes her as being 'born aloft into the kitchen,' but I couldn't picture how that could actually happen in that situation (not to mention that it seriously gives me weird this crowd surfing image), so I made it like this instead. Yes, I'm continuing to disregard canon... but I won't do it on anything important, really.

Thank you so much for all your responses! Hope to hear from you. (: (And hey, we've reached a 100,000 words! Only one of twelve on this site! Of course a lot of that is author's notes... oh well. I'd be happy if you celebrated with me anyway. (; )

Posted 2/5/12


	27. The Price of Justice

Disclaimer: The characters, much of the dialogue, and sadly, even the plot are not mine; they all belong to Eoin Colfer.

Pages: 281 – 286

Chapter 26: The Price of Justice

Holly stared up at the dark sky, eyes drawn away from the horrible faces of the beasts drawing ever closer, throwing up her final, useless cry for aid, and was answered by a blessed downpour from the heavens.

Silver sparkles like a scene from a children's book seemed to fall slowly, turning over and over in midair like tiny glittering meteorites of wealth.

Holly and Kronski's men alike had stopped moving, all staring up at the ethereal scene suddenly before them. Strange how even in this abhorrent-smelling place the atmosphere of a beautifully quiet field of snow with snowflakes drifting softly, slowly down all around them could be replicated so effectively, the awed silence falling over them like the casting of a magic spell.

The 'snowflakes' hit with soft _plinks_ and _plooshes_ as they struck the sandy ground and fell into the liquid dye still standing in the vats all around them. The look of childlike wonder on the faces of Kronski's men was almost comical with those huge, muscular bodies, which had a moment before been so twisted, muscles taut and drawn back over bared teeth as the excitement of the capture mounted. But their quarry seemed to be the last thing on their minds at the moment.

It was one of Kronski's men who finally punched through the stunned silence with an exclamation. _"Des diamants!"_

Diamonds. Hundreds of tiny gleaming gems, maybe thousands, falling like hailstones in the light of the lamps hanging all around the souk.

As unexpected as this turn of events was, Holly had a blinding flash of insight and knew in an instant exactly what was happening.

Her gaze flitted upward, eyes falling on the precise spot where the diamonds had come from. As the men all simultaneously dove for the stones that would make them among the richest men in the city, Holly saw a dark window up on a higher level of the wall where she was just able to catch a glimpse of a small, pale hand retreating into the darkness.

Five million euros in diamonds would certainly serve as an adequate distraction, Holly thought, especially for greedy men such as these.

Though Holly knew what had had happened, she was completely at a loss as to why. Little Artemis had just saved her life. No, not only saved her, but done so by giving up what he had gained by going to the effort of taking her captive to begin with. This definitely wasn't the Artemis she knew, at least not the young one.

Well, maybe not saved quite yet, she thought, as one particularly large, hairy guard plunged right past her. Even though at the moment he was as blind to his target as if she had had her shield buzzing, this was a temporary distraction that could only last so long.

Holly gave a quick salute of thanks at the dark window above, unable to see whether the boy was still standing in the shadows, observing the scene unfolding below or not. But he probably was: he would want to see how well his strategy worked. Holly could just imagine his two blue eyes piercing through the low light, boring into her mismatched ones, thin lips tight with obvious displeasure at the thought of doing something decent for another living being just for the sake of it.

Holly shot off in the direction of the closest alleyway, one that had been blocked earlier by one of the giant men now scavenging in dye vats and motes of pigeon droppings.

As Holly ran, she found herself still wondering why young Artemis had decided to step in to help. She had, of course, hoped that Artemis would be there waiting for her, that he would have something planned, but the last thing she would have expected was for the Artemis of this time, who had just sold her to the Extinctionists in the first place, to fill that role. Did he have a sliver of conscience even at that age? Or perhaps, thought her more wily side, he yet had some other plan for her in store.

Holly was almost to the alley now, long since out of little Artemis's sight line. The fact that being out of the area little Artemis could see her – and therefore probably beyond where the boy would have even the slightest bit of control – actually made her nervous again probably showed just how tapped out she was at the moment.

As it turned out, she was right to be nervous, not that little Artemis could or would have done anything had he seen what happened to her next. Fate was really dead set against her lately.

Maybe it was because she had let her guard down knowing the guards were occupied, or maybe she was too exhausted from all that had happened to be as careful as she should, but Holly had absolutely no warning as, her eyes still trained on the open alleyway in front of her, something very large suddenly slammed into her full force, tackling her to the sandy ground.

"Two for two," gasped the enormous Damon Kronski, out of breath, pinning Holly down with his bulk. "I got both of you. This must be my lucky day."

This comment should have sent warning bells clanging in Holly's head then, but she was too dazed by the suddenness and unfairness of this latest development to register anything else.

Kronski leaned over her, droplets of sweat running off his face and falling like fat, foul polluted raindrops onto her face and neck. He sat on her torso, slowly crushing the air from her lungs as though he were squeezing the air out of a beach ball with a tiny, invisible puncture.

The madness in the man's eyes was much different than the kind she had seen when he had been talking excitedly about wiping out rare species, or expounding to his fellow Extinctionists on how they ought to kill Holly to show her kind and the planet who was boss, or making James Bond references. This was an irate sort of insanity, the kind that would result in complete, unbridled violence. There was no reasoning with this man now; he was beyond being stopped with bribery or the proffered hope of making a profit. Unlike his hoards of rapacious hired men, Kronski at this moment cared nothing about his wasted diamonds.

"Except, this is _not_ my lucky day, is it," he roared in her face, spraying her with spit.

_Join the club, _thought Holly, as she struggled helplessly against the weight. Although in Kronski's case she didn't consider it so much luck as karma.

Kronski was still raving. "You saw to that. You and your accomplice." He was in such a state that, despite his wild fury, there was not even a single flicker of vindictive joy as he hurled the next verbal bombshell in Holly's face.

"Well, my gas chamber took care of him. Now I will take care of you!"

Holly made no sound of response, but it suddenly felt as though the physical weight pressing down on her had punched through to her inner being. She couldn't breathe; her chest was going to cave in under Kronski's immense frame, the mass as immovable atop her as a fallen boulder. The words hung in her mind like a hundred-million-ton hematite orebody, a force that dragged her down, overwhelming her motivation, her willpower.

_Artemis dead?_

The smell of pigeon droppings filled her nostrils as she flailed limply against Kronski's bulk, the lack of air already draining her of her strength. The stench swirled in her mind with the pain and the confused lightheadedness as her body pleaded for oxygen.

Holly's survival instinct forced her to shut out thoughts of her friend for the moment. After all, Artemis Fowl was a constant of this world. He could not be dead.

Kronski was at least twice Holly's size and as far as weight went probably even more than that. Old and out of shape as the man was, Holly didn't have a prayer of getting him off. Instead she continued to fight helplessly as Kronski pressed his forearm ever harder down against her small, fragile fairy neck, slowly suffocating her. Her lungs burned for air, her creaking ribs screamed for relief.

Strange. She had always thought that, when her time came, right before the end she would somehow be supernaturally filled with thoughts of friends and family. Of her deceased mother and father, of Foaly and Major – or Commander – Trouble Kelp, Julius, and even her human friends. But as her vision faded, her brain felt oddly devoid of any meaningful rational thought. The horrible smell of the souk was stifling as it muddled everything.

Karma, she thought vaguely. What a bunk concept. It wasn't right that she was going to spend her final moments breathing in the awful odor of pigeon droppings, while Kronski didn't even catch a whiff.

_I wish Kronski could smell this,_ she thought bitterly.

Then it occurred to her. Wasn't it in her power to do just that? She had almost forgotten, but she had a _bit _of magic left. Enough to heal Kronski of his anosmia – the condition of having no sense of smell that Artemis had mentioned. Healing such an old injury was of course a risky business and not recommended by the Bureau of Public Health and Safety in Haven, and Holly wouldn't have dared try it on someone she actually liked, but maybe Kronski would be a good subject for a little experiment.

Despite the pain, despite the smell, Holly forced herself to concentrate, summoning every last bit of magic she possessed as she crawled her hand slowly up Kronski's face centimeter by centimeter, her hand moving along like a timid, five-legged spider. This was easier said than done, as to reach she had to strain against Kronski's forearm, causing the sweaty purple fabric clinging to the arm to cut even deeper into her windpipe.

"What's this? Are you playing 'got your nose'?" jeered the doctor, as ever treating Holly as a child merely because of her size. Patronizing, always mocking her.

Kronski of course could have no idea what Holly planned. If he had, as well as the veritable list of possible unpleasant consequences for what his formerly soon-to-be victim was about to do, he probably would have tried harder to stop her. As it was, Holly ignored his flapping mouth and her hand was able to find Kronski's nose unhindered.

Holly let her blurred, watery eyes close as she concentrated everything she had on the magic, forcing her tense body to relax as she put everything she had into preparing for the spell even under Kronski's vicious attack. Then, abruptly she shoved two fingers right up the former Extinctionist president's nose.

* * *

><p>Holly didn't have enough clear thought left to contemplate how gross it was to have her fingers inside the nostrils of what had to be one of the most repulsive people in the world. There was no more time left to think, only to act.<p>

"Heal," she breathed, using up her very last bit of air.

"Hey, what the..." Kronski began, voice distorted and nasally as he spoke around Holly's fingers, then gave a hard sneeze a moment after Holly's hand dropped back down like that of a marionette suddenly cut from its strings, her remaining energy spent.

But her last effort was not to go to waste. The sneeze, strong as a blast from a fireman's water hose, threw Kronski backward and off the trapped fairy.

Kronski seemed more annoyed than alarmed. "What are you, five years old?" he said, dropping the pretense of viewing Holly to be not much beyond preschool. "Sticking fingers up my nose."

He was really one to talk about acting like a child, with all his spoiled immaturities and squeals of terror when the least thing startled him, Holly thought. Although, that statement was potentially an insult to children of every nationality worldwide.

Kronski sneezed again, this time with the force of a gunshot, with even what looked like smoke rising in spirals from each nostril to top off the effect. Holly was glad to have avoided the line of fire both times; she didn't need anything to make her feel any more grimy than she already did.

Kronski was still complaining as he sneezed hard yet again, this one painful enough to make tears roll down his flabby cheeks and to make him tremble violently all over, even cracking the glass of the lenses of his audacious purple sunglasses.

Holly couldn't move right away. At first the most she could do was watch Kronski, her face a mask of nothing but a blank stupor of exhaustion.

When the doctor's convulsions stopped, his whole body relaxed again. He laid there in that spot for a brief moment, just enjoying the relief. A moment passed before he said in wonder, "Oh my. Something's different. Something has changed."

Then, suddenly, a high-pitched screech that was almost subhuman started coming out of his mouth. His entire body went abruptly taut and his limbs flew about wildly like a beetle caught on its back. He looked like he was in pure agony.

"Wow," said Holly in a painful, rasping voice as she rubbed her sore esophagus – she could probably expect to have nice, big purple bruises forming there within the next couple of days with her luck, if she lived that long – Kronski's body's response to the healing was turning out to be really something. She had hoped it would give her a bit of a reprieve and maybe time to get a head start on her escape, or else come up with a better plan, but she hadn't expected it to completely immobilize him. No doubt Artemis would have been able to conjure up some explanation for this extreme reaction, or maybe several, but all Holly cared about right now was that she was finally getting a much-deserved stroke of luck.

The thought of Artemis however brought a biting pain to her throat that had nothing to do with the doctor's attempt to strangle her. The weight in her chest was suddenly heavier than even Kronski's bloated form had been, the tiredness that had been in her limbs almost from the beginning of this wretched mission more complete.

"Foul," repeated the now deranged Kronski, over and over again, apparently in response to the stench of the pigeon droppings now permeating his fully functional sense of smell. "Foul. Fowl, Fowl."

Holly forced her body to move, to roll onto her stomach so she could push herself up onto her hands and knees. She gasped for breath and coughed hard, aggravating her burning throat. Her fingers dug tiny, shallow trenches in the coarse sand as her hands tightened into fists.

Holly stared down at the hard, rough ground beneath her, her shoulder blades forming peaks on her back as her body slumped listlessly between them, ears dully taking in the rising voices of Kronski's men in the distance now fighting over the remaining diamonds.

Vague images flickered in Holly's mind. For a moment she pictured herself returning to the manor with Jayjay without Artemis. Returning to the future alone.

A sense of revulsion and regret so strong it sent a numbness spreading from the tips of her fingers up her arms seized her. It hit her that Artemis, in having come to save her, had possibly unintentionally taken her place as the strange creature to be executed for the crime of being unwanted by the human race, burned alive in an instant. What would Butler do to her when her found out, she wondered dimly.

_The mission isn't over yet,_ her professional side reminded her. _Get up._

Despite the horror of the circumstances, there was still a part of her as hard as nails, pushing her as ever. If things were the other way around, Artemis would keep going, she reminded herself. He would keep walking forward regardless of everything. If she somehow failed to get back and save his mother now he would never forgive her. His spirit would probably haunt her, reciting scientific equations she couldn't begin to understand.

However, even these thoughts weren't enough to renew her strength enough to continue. Her spirit was emaciated, torn down to no more than the thinnest thread. She was debilitated, just as she had been when her commander had been murdered by Opal Koboi, and she had thought for a moment her human friends exterminated by blue rinse light. She had barely been able to pull herself back together back then as it was. Now on top of everything her sense of professionalism was muted beneath countless insecurities, wild, overpowering emotional fluctuations of being in this worthless adolescent body. No more than an adolescent, like Artemis – like Artemis had been.

At this, muddled thoughts like tendrils of smoke rising from a distant fire drifted through her head. It was so strange; she could not understand it. How had he, still a child, always been able to deal with things like this with such equilibrium and composure?

Each breath of Holly's was still coming hard as she looked toward Kronski again. She knew she needed details of what had exactly happened to her friend before she could keep going. But even in this semi-stupor she could see at a glance it was hopeless; Kronski, still twitching and moaning, was too far gone to be any use interrogating.

Holly looked at the man lying pathetically on his back, and found herself wondering where all her wrath had gone. For so much of the past day she had dwelt endlessly on how much she wanted this man to get what he deserved, not just for his putting her on trial, but for what he had done to so many species around the world, his attitude toward nature itself. Now they were here, and after Kronski had committed the most heinous act yet, apparently he was finally getting the full measure of those just deserts.

Yet she found she couldn't bring herself to care much. Perhaps the price that had had to be paid before that justice had come had simply been too high – There was no satisfaction, only an empty ache.

She needed to get up. She was not going to get anywhere dwelling on these regrets. But still, Holly stayed where she was, staring languidly at the large man, now left so helpless.

But Holly hesitated then, a spark of life for a second reigniting itself in her eyes as she noticed that one of the lenses of Kronski's tinted glasses had totally broken out. Behind the shattered glass shards still jutting at all angles within the frame, she realized upon really getting a good look at the man's eyes for the first time that the pupil looked almost blurred or out-of-focus from a distance. An almost jagged, rough look around the edge of the retina.

This startling piece of evidence could only mean one thing: Kronski was under a fairy's spell.

Normally, the idea of yet another unknown factor in an already complicated situation would have been as unwelcome as anything to Holly, but right now factors and variables unaccounted for which would undo all that seemed certain was like a blessed gift descended directly from above.

Holly got slowly to her feet.

A chance, she thought. It was a chance. If by some miracle the mere fact that a fairy had clearly been involved with Damon Kronski meant that there was a probability, however slight, that Artemis might still be alive somewhere – no matter what it took, Holly would make sure she was there to save him.

* * *

><p>AN: Well, so much for homework. But I really wanted to post this on Valentine's Day, because I have a bit of a fetish for posting on holidays. (; I'll get it done eventually...

Thank you so much for reviewing! Please tell me what you think. (:

Posted 2/14/12


	28. Indestructible

Disclaimer: The characters, much of the dialogue, and sadly, even the plot are not mine; they all belong to Eoin Colfer.

Pages: –

Chapter 27: Indestructible

Holly was back in action. She headed toward the nearest alley, limping slightly at first thanks to the fact she still only had one shoe, giving herself time to readjust to her slightly uneven footing, and leaving Kronski twitching on his back like a huge overturned land turtle.

Although Holly had no way of knowing if a fairy's covertly pulling the strings behind the scenes would have had any effect on Kronski's belief concerning what had really happened to Artemis, the information was enough to snap the LEP captain back into her usual frame of mind: deadly focused.

Holly's first natural instinct was to turn and dash at full speed back to the compound, where she had last seen her friend. But instead Holly forced herself to check her emotions and think. A few seconds of forethought could mean the difference between success and failure, between life and death – or so they were constantly told in the LEP training regime back in Haven.

Though she would have liked nothing more than to take the quickest path straight to the cluster of ostentatious buildings built for the comfort of the Extinctionists, it didn't take much for her to realize that that would not be the best tactical decision at the moment for several reasons.

Despite the fact that most of Kronski's guards were still back in the center of the souk fishing for diamonds and probably tussling over those already found, and despite the fact their leader who had given the initial order to capture 'the creature' had been taken out of action, Holly wouldn't be surprised if a few stragglers still remained, off somewhere with broken radios unaware of either the diamond situation or the state of their president.

Besides, it would be reckless and stupid to go back to the compound to save Artemis, helpless and unarmed as she was. She would stand a much better chance and be of a lot more use with some equipment, preferably weaponry of some kind. She may need to break Artemis out if he was some rogue criminal fairy's prisoner, and a ready-made escape route would be sure to make things simpler.

So that was that: there was nothing for it but to go on ahead to the shuttle, then pilot it back to the compound. Unfortunately, for concealment purposes the ship was not located within an easy distance, at least not easy in a situation where, as far as Holly was concerned, seconds counted. She could only hope Artemis had left the scooter somewhere it would be easy to find, and that her human and dwarf friends had not needed to move the shuttle for some reason while she had been imprisoned at the compound. She didn't know if she would ever find it in that case; besides, the mere thought of either Artemis or Mulch attempting to fly the old ship made her shudder.

In truth, Artemis could have left the scooter just about anywhere. However, Holly had a feeling that Artemis would have made sure to hide the collapsible vehicle somewhere she would have a chance of finding it, in case of just a scenario as this. And he had already given her a clue.

"_Let's meet somewhere close. At the souk."_

Holly made her way through the deserted alleyways, going the long way around the souk just to be safe as she headed toward the spot where they had spent the previous afternoon in the cham pod. With no shield to hide her, Holly kept to the shadows as much as possible.

Once, she had to abruptly duck out of the way as two of Kronski's guards, arguing over who owed who a stone or two from each's small stash of diamonds for favors performed, sauntered past. However, enough merchants and tourists were still out that it was impossible to stay completely unnoticed, and Holly's sense of being short on time – a feeling she had been experiencing a lot lately – pushed her to go faster rather than be as careful as she might have been.

A couple of tourists, apparently having been among the earlier witnesses, upon noticing the elf moving briskly around the back of a stall where the merchant was trying to sell cheap, fake gold jewelry clapped and cheered for her having successfully eluded her big, truculent pursuers.

A bit of a smile crossed her lips for a moment despite herself, and Holly turned to them and pressed a quieting finger to her lips. The tourists fell silent abruptly, though still grinned conspiratorially, and by the time the merchant they had been talking to turned, frowning, to see what they were looking at, Holly was gone.

* * *

><p>The sock of Holly's shoeless foot had just about worn through by the time she was padding up the stairway that led to the balcony overlooking the souk.<p>

Holly went up the cold stone steps, turned a corner, and emerged onto the balcony. She searched all around the landing and leaned over as far as she dared where a railing ordinarily would have been to see as best she could the exact place they had been in the cham pod earlier, but of course it was empty.

As she pulled back, her eyes fell on the expansive area below, many of Kronski's guards still yet fighting for the diamonds. What had seemed to Holly a small army had thinned considerably, though she still made out the indisposed form of Damon Kronski, continuing to twitch and jerk on his back.

Holly returned to the stairwell and looked all around at the dirty stone walls, graffiti spotting its surface at random. She scanned the corners and the ground along the dark gray surface, searching for something, some further clue. Just when she was about to give up and go down into the souk itself to look, even if it was risky, a particular bit of minuscule graffiti jumped out at her.

Moving up close to the banister, Holly peered curiously at the tiny numbers carved neatly right above the rail right at the top of the stairway.

_Nine-zero-nine_. Next to that, an even smaller upside-down 'V.' An arrow?

Holly tilted her head back to stare at the corner between the ceiling and wall. She couldn't see anything in the darkness, so she stepped up onto the rail and groped blindly upward until her hand closed around a wrinkled, squashy object, like a large, mostly deflated beach ball.

Holly felt around for a moment and hit a button to deactivate the suction power keeping the only partially blown up cham pod stuck to the ceiling, and as it started to come down on top of her, she batted it over so it fell instead on the top few steps behind her.

As it went down she felt something hard inside it and her suspicion of what it might be was confirmed when she looked inside the pod and found a metallic disc the size of a frisbee.

As Holly stood, clutching the object in one hand while the flat cham pod hung limply in the other, she glanced back up at Artemis's addition to the already pretty-well defaced wall, the fairy police emergency number with the arrow next to it.

Holly rolled her eyes slightly. A tad obvious. Artemis must have been really pressed for time.

* * *

><p>The darkness seemed to swallow Holly as she drove the scooter out of Fez and away from the lamplight of the merchants' shops still open even at this hour, though even they were starting to pack up now last Holly had seen. Soon she only had her superior night vision and the tiny pinpricks of light of the bright, shining stars above to rely on, afraid as she was to flick on the Lambretta's headlights, as they would probably be better than a lighthouse beacon to tell everyone within a three-mile radius exactly where she was.<p>

All vestiges of the blazing heat of the day were now gone as the night chill bit at her fingers and exposed neck, which still felt sore from her struggle with Kronski.

Holly drove as fast as she dared in the darkness. If she'd been Doodah Day, she probably could have pushed herself to go faster, but she didn't have quite the gift with ground vehicles the little fish-smuggling pixie did, though if it had been an aircraft in question that point probably would have been arguable.

The entire way, Holly battled the mounting sense of urgency growing in her chest. The tedium of waiting for each second to tick slowly by while she knew Artemis, if he was alive, could be in danger somewhere right now was beyond aggravating. She wanted to open the throttle as far as it would go to cut down that twenty or so more minutes it would take to get to the ship by as much as she could, but she kept repeating to herself that being overly remiss about details and her own safety now wouldn't help Artemis.

As Holly reached the area where the golf courses were, she felt like impatience was going to eat her alive as her eyes flew about in the darkness, searching for something familiar that could lead her back to the particular sand dune she had parked the shuttle in, but every dune looked pretty well identical to the next in this light.

Holly dropped her eyes to the small screen on the dash. Going into the scooter's navigation system, she quickly tapped in the coordinates of the shuttle. The tiny computer responded by providing her with a map, where the shuttle's location was marked with a tiny red dot, and so Holly took off.

As Holly hurtled along the road next to the olive trees, gnarled twisted trunks lining her path like prison bars, she urged the scooter a little faster, moving out into the particular golf course indicated on the map, filled again with the sense that she didn't have any more time to waste. Where was it? Any minute, surely –

"Well, well," said a low, guttural voice from somewhere to her left. "Good to have you back, Captain, I suppose. I was beginning to think I wouldn't be seeing you again."

Holly slowed the scooter and turned. She could just make out the outline of a short, stubby figure standing in one of the golf course's sand pits, grinning with weirdly huge square teeth.

Holly didn't bother to point out that he would be seeing her again regardless of what happened to her now, as he would be interacting with her present self – the self of this time – in excess in the near future for some time to come. Instead, she spun the scooter around and shot right toward where Mulch was standing.

Mulch took no notice at first, still talking in his usual merrily irksome way. "Looked like you might be a little lost over there about how to find where you landed your own ship, so I thought I'd do you a favor, and in return I was just thinking you might – Whoa, watch it!"

Mulch had to scramble out of the way as Holly rocketed over, collapsing the scooter and flipping open the hatch with one movement as she did so.

"Back in!" Holly barked. "We're going."

"Thanks, Mulch, you're a live saver," grumbled the dwarf sulkily as he followed Holly reluctantly into the ship, pulling the hatch closed behind him. "You're welcome for the rescue, Captain."

After tossing the scooter-disk unceremoniously aside, engendering a "Hey, careful with that!" from Mulch, Holly headed immediately for the pilot's chair, abaya hem caked with sand and dirt swishing around her legs and scraping against her ankles. Catching sight of the side of her own head in a bit of reflective surface on the dash in front of her, one ear still looking like it had been savaged by a very small shark, she reached up and ripped off the nu skin bandage Artemis had put there, throwing it back over her shoulder without looking. She'd toss it into the on-ship recycling smelter later when she had the chance.

"Sit down and buckle up," she ordered as her hands flew over the V-board and she reached forward to flip switches, starting the hum of the ship's engines.

"What happened to your pet Mud Boy?" Mulch wanted to know. "Are we leaving him? Too bad, I s'pose he was starting to grow on me – for a Mud Person. Should I start planning out my speech for the funeral?"

Holly's throat contracted convulsively, but she ignored it. "We're going to get him," she said curtly. "Now what part of 'get in and buckle up right now' do you need me to clarify for you?"

"So you lost him," noted Mulch summarily. "Gotta say, you two really don't seem to have it together. Can't say I'm impressed with this level of performance. Or better yet, as Julius would say – "

The engines were already finished warming and Holly had performed all the pre-flight checks in record time. "Mulch," said Holly tightly, cutting him off, "I'm going to count to two, and if you're not in a seat and strapped in, you can have fun telling me later about what it's like to be a live dwarf pinball."

Mulch heaved a dramatic sigh before reluctantly flopping himself down in the copilot's chair. He clicked his tongue and a chattering Jayjay, seeming to appear out of nowhere, scaled the tall back in a second and came a moment later to rest on Mulch's head. Mulch shifted the animal to his lap.

"Don't mind Captain Short, Jayjay," he told the lemur as he locked the two of them in place. "She's always like this. But you'll get accustomed to her rough, uncultured ways eventually."

Jayjay clapped his tiny hands with happy approval and chattered again with a sound like laughter.

Holly's sense of priority made it so she was at the moment almost totally consumed with what she needed to do: getting to Artemis.

However, somewhere at the back of her mind Holly had a thought that the real Commander Root would be turning in his grave, so to speak, if he could see a being thought by anyone to have any resemblance to him getting along so well with his old kleptomaniac, epically pain-in-the-rear nemesis.

* * *

><p>Once the shuttle was up in the air and piercing through the night sky like a javelin, albeit a somewhat misshapen, unrefined javelin that may have originally been designed to look like a hippo by accident, Holly felt a bit more relaxed. Enough to say, if grudgingly, "Thank you, Mulch. For the help. You've done a lot."<p>

"It's a start," he replied. Then continued, being the incurably voracious dwarf that he was, "Now if you could just make your tone a bit nicer. Oh, and I wouldn't mind if you threw a few gold coins into that, too."

"You're asking for coins when you're already getting this whole ship and everything in it. Tell me, doesn't carrying around that bottomless pit of greed ever get exhausting?"

"Nope," said Mulch blithely, shrugging. "Never too tired for gold. Or food."

Holly rolled her eyes, but decided it was best not to respond, her gaze still searching for when they would come upon the compound.

"So," said Mulch after a moment, "what _did_ happen to your Mud Boy? He got you out I'm guessing by the look of it, then what happened to him?"

This was a question Holly did not want to answer, but considering Mulch's usual level of sensitivity, she had a feeling he would pester her anyway until she provided a satisfactory response, so she said honestly, "I don't know exactly. We got separated."

"Just 'got separated,'" repeated Mulch, in a tone that held in every inch skepticism of the simplicity of Holly's explanation. "So it'll be as easy as plucking strawberries off a cake, then, will it? All we have to do is nip down there and pick him up. No complications."

"Probably not that easy," Holly admitted.

Holly realized the muscles in her arms were tight with nerves and she forced them to relax. She would fly better if she wasn't so tense, not there was any trouble to be expected. Yet.

_Everything is going to be fine,_ she told herself. _Artemis is at compound, still alive and just waiting for the calvary to show up._ Or perhaps he already had everything under control. After all, if Holly had ever met a living being that was indestructible, it had to be Artemis Fowl.

Of course, she had once thought the same thing about Commander Root.

* * *

><p>AN: A bit of a slow chapter, I know. Next chapter will be better, if on the short side, (even though I know how much you all don't like short chapters, lol.) But chapter 29's one I really enjoyed, so hope you can look forward to it. (;

Sigh, I'm posting this from a university computer instead of getting started on my five-page paper on three different artworks... Procrastination is really not my friend. But for some reason we always end up going to parties together anyway. X3

Here are my billions of notes, as usual: On the balcony overlooking the souk thing, I looked at as many photographs that I could taken of the souk I could get off google, but I couldn't find anything that resembled a balcony. So I'm thinking this means one of three things: one, the photos aren't clear enough and is making something that is a balcony not apparent (because of the relative small size of the objects in the photos), two, the balcony was simply made up for the purposes of the story, or three, possibly all the photos were taken from the vantage point of this balcony, hence why we can't see it. There is one online body of text that I see over and over concerning the souk that says something about a balcony, but I haven't found anything else about it.

The only places I could see where one might 'sucker a pod to a shadowy underside' of something were the upper floors of the buildings/walls surrounding the place that stuck forward (with walls above the outcropping rather than a landing) However, those wouldn't be considered balconies, would they? I thought about several different ways to describe things, but in the end had to just choose one and stick with it. Therefore, the way I depict the balcony may not be accurate, but I did try my best. If anyone has been to the souk and knows about this, or knows of a photograph or website that has information on a balcony, I would love to hear about it. (: (Though I can't promise I'd change it at this point xD)

Secondly, concerning the balcony and pod, I also didn't understand how they had managed to get the cham pod suckered underneath it, or how they climbed in and out of it either... Are they going in from below, or above? Going in from above seems like it would be more difficult than the book makes it sound; however, if the pod was that close to the ground, wouldn't there be a chance someone would run into it by accident? I figured the stairway would be outside the wall if they went down to get out, but would probably have to be inside the 'wall' if they went up. It may not be accurate, but for purposes of this fanfiction I decided to make them go up and she went down the stairs through the building, rather than outside it.

Yes, I am being manic-obsessive when it comes to details, lol (it's to make up for the ones I completely miss because I don't notice :P)

Anyway, sorry for so many notes at the end. Thanks for reviewing, please tell me what you've thought so far! I've really been enjoying hearing from all of you. (:

By the way, this doesn't really have anything to do with anything, but has any read the excerpt from _The Last Guardian_ yet? :3

Posted 2/23/12


	29. Intellectual Equal

Disclaimer: The characters, much of the dialogue, and sadly, even the plot are not mine; they all belong to Eoin Colfer.

Pages: 296 – 297, 301 – 302, 303 – 306

Chapter 28: Intellectual Equal

When the broad expanse that was the Extinctionists' compound appeared as a dark outline in the shuttle's windshield, Holly flew the ship over the high walls.

Finding a spot behind one of the fancy, large-windowed houses all throughout the compound near the trial building, Holly set the ship down where it would be concealed further should the ship's shields and the cover of darkness not be enough to cloak them from view. She quickly oriented the ship so she would have a clear visual on the conference center's main entrance door, which was hanging at an angle, half-broken off its hinges and looking very much the site of a recent natural disaster.

Before, when Holly had first left the building and was on the run, dodging through the compound to make her way to the high arch exit at the front, the place had been pretty full of the activity of Extinctionists making their escape and Kronski's guards running this way and that following their boss's orders. However, now the place was pretty well empty of its despicable temporary inhabitants and staff. This was the first time she was getting a good view of the building from the outside – It gave her the shivers seeing it, the giant edifice extending from the top of the hall, a human hand crushing the world in its palm.

Holly reached for the release on her restraints. "I'm going in," she said. "You coming, Mulch?"

Mulch groaned loudly and rubbed his face. "How is it that I keep getting dragged all over the place like a mining slave? We make a deal and I play my part fine, then the next thing I know you lot are trying to squeeze more out of me. And to make up for your sad incompetence of all things. I don't know that I like getting my labor taken advantage of like that. I have rights." He paused. "Although, at least I've had some good company," he added, patting Jayjay's head.

"Then don't come," said Holly, a little indignantly, though privately she thought she would feel better about this if she had Mulch and his talents at her back. She just had to accept that this Mulch, like little Artemis, had no reason to serve anyone's interests other than his own.

"Maybe if I had an extra incentive..." Mulch hinted, trailing off hopefully.

"Fine! Anything you want," Holly snapped, fully aware that she would regret this promise later, but she didn't want to be standing around here squabbling about prices when Artemis could be in peril right now.

Mulch's face lit up. "Now you're talking my language, Captain."

"Fine," she said again. "Then let's go. But if we're too late by the time we get there, don't expect a thing."

As Holly turned her attention back to her belt, Mulch spoke up again, tawny eyes staring out the front window at the conference center with the trashed banqueting hall, "Okay then. But you might not want to go out there just now."

"Why?" Holly asked, looking up sharply, but she saw immediately what Mulch meant, her heart sinking as she caught sight of the line of dark forms making their way toward the conference hall entryway. One lone figure stood at the head, followed by a small collection of others, like night tourists led onward by a tenacious tour guide. But Holly would bet anything these weren't tourists.

Holly hit a few buttons on the console, and an enlarged image of the group appeared projected on a section of the windshield, though leaving their view of the actual scene outside unobstructed. She changed the filter so she could see them more clearly in the darkness.

Holly recognized many of the faces in the small crowd from the audience of what had been supposed to be her execution. The man at the front she was positive was the one who had touched her ear and participated in a bit of playacting with Kronski for the Extinctionists.

"It'll be hard to sneak in unseen with all those Mud People crowding around the door like that," Mulch commented conversationally.

Holly swore angrily and banged her hand against the flight instruments. "What are they doing?" she demanded. Like Kronski's guards, were these people after her too? Even with Kronksi out of action, perhaps they suspected "Pasteur's" version of things to not be so trustworthy after all and, realizing she might be a genuine fairy, had thought they would take a shot at the wealth that awaited them if they managed to catch a whole new, undiscovered sentient species themselves.

"Hmm." Mulch leaned in to peer closer at the image of the Extinctionists on the screen. "A rich bunch these are from the look of 'em," he said. "Wonder how much that watch'd fetch. And that gun. Maybe I could just nip down there and..."

Holly ignored the kleptomaniac dwarf and quickly scanned the area around the building. She might be able to get in a back way. But there would still be the problem of staying away from the Extinctionists afterward while she looked for Artemis once they made their way inside.

"Well, we can't wait anymore," said Holly after a few seconds of hard thinking, her forehead still lined with creases in concentration. "We'll just have to go ahead and hope for the best. We might be fine if we're just careful enough. Think you could tunnel in?"

Mulch's eyes were still on the group, but now he was looking decidedly disappointed. "This whole place is built on concrete. I can smell it." He eyed the Extinctionists and their pricey accessories longingly, but apparently not even Mulch Diggums was brazen enough to just stroll right up to the disturbing group of hostile haters of any and everything non-human.

Mulch suddenly stopped, frowning. "Might want to wait a second anyway before you go charging in there, Captain." He pointed at the screen, where the Extinctionists all seemed to be hesitating outside the central building of the compound. Kronski's former cohort who was leading the group had a hand cupped behind one ear and appeared to be listening.

"Paranoid bunch," said Holly. "Maybe I could – "

"Don't think they are," said Mulch. "Don't you hear it?"

Holly listened. Now that she concentrated, she _could_ hear something. Like the dull roar of thunder in the distance, though just barely.

"Not that I've ever been known for fortune telling, but I'm going to take a guess and say that pretty soon you're going to be glad you're in here and not out there," Mulch said wisely. "Might want to check those whatever-sensors of yours or something, just let us know what to expect."

Holly wondered why she hadn't thought of it before. She selected the filter for thermal imaging on what they could make out through the windshield and the image appeared in miniature on one of the small screens set into the dash.

The warm tones of the Extinctionists waiting timidly outside the complex door blossomed in front of her. However, in addition to the orange and yellow tones of the humans, the orange and red of moving bodies in the building also appeared. Not just one or two, but dozens. Maybe hundreds. Whatever they were, Holly and Mulch, as well as the Extinctionists, were about to find out.

The rumbling rose in pitch, then faded away. However, Holly could now feel the vibration underneath her feet.

As it turned out, Mulch was dead right. Suddenly the moving mass of warm bodies on screen exploded out the broken door, taking what seemed to be half the wall with them, and the hapless Extinctionists were swept away in a sea of stampeding animals.

From the scene, the casual observer might have guessed that they were looking at a hoard of beasts escaped from a nearby zoo. Extraordinary animals from every part of the world were everywhere, panic in their eyes. Holly thought she saw a lion and a gazelle as well as a number of strange monkeys, snakes, and birds, all clearly intent on freedom.

Holly wondered if the Extinctionists realized how much they themselves had resembled these animals earlier when they had been treading the same path of attempting to escape the trap the conference center had become. Though Holly had to admit such a comparison was an insult to the animals.

Holly's fingers were tingling on the controls as she quickly scanned the scene. Her pounding heart rose into her throat.

Surely the Extinctionists of all people wouldn't have been keeping a zoo tucked away somewhere as an attraction. No, Holly was sure: These could only be the rare, exotic animals the Extinctionists had put on trial over the years and supposedly executed. Yet here they all were, alive and well, and even getting a bit of revenge on the humans who'd attempted to demonstrate who was master of the planet.

So it would only make sense, wouldn't it? Only make sense that...

Holly held her breath as she looked out over the wide space of the compound, magnifying area after area and placing a night vision filter over everything. Her sharp eyes moved back and forth with careful but speedy precision, as though taking in the contents of a thriller novel, searching among the masses for one exceptionally rare, exotic "animal" in particular.

"Better hope he's not in there," said Mulch. "Or else he's probably trampled flatter n'a pancake by now."

Holly shut out Mulch and his flippant tone as she continued to look. He was there, somewhere; he had to be. This time, she would not fail to find him, as she had earlier by the kitchen door inside the conference center. Even if he did belong with this collection of beautiful, exotically fascinating beasts more than he had with the greedy, bloodthirsty Extinctionists, physically he wouldn't blend in so well.

Then her mismatched eyes fell on a solitary figure. He rode bareback on what appeared to be a kind of striped pony, controlling his mount with surprising skill for someone normally so inept in physical matters. Already separated from the main pack, he turned and headed out toward the open area of the compound's central park.

The young man was looking a little worse for wear, linen suit torn and frayed all over, left sleeve sheared off or possibly rolled up, one lens of his tinted glasses shattered out of the frame, long black hair which had been neatly combed back earlier now askew. However, all this was easily forgotten when at last one's gaze settled on his penetrating blue eyes, bright with determination as always.

Holly could have sworn he turned and looked in the precise direction where the fairy shuttle waited, invisible. The briefest of smiles crossed his thin lips.

Strange how he could look like that, riding awkwardly on the semi-panicking little striped-donkey-like animal, clothing just about as pristine as that of a refugee from a war zone. But there was no denying it; he was empowered, triumphant.

Or perhaps it was simply her imagination, and she was only imposing that interpretation on the scene. The way he was heading toward them in the darkness, sounds and images of the battleground where justice was being carried out serving as a backdrop, his thin form backlit by the bright lights now sputtering inside the center. And in consideration of what Holly had, up until now, half-believed had happened to him.

Holly raised the shuttle and piloted it over the beach house, gliding swiftly to where Artemis and the striped pony cantered along through the park.

Her hands trembling slightly, Holly quickly activated the robotic arm normally used for moving cargo into the ship cargo bay for transport, though with the clunky design the end more resembled the scoop of a bulldozer, and used it to carefully draw the gangly, long-haired teen into the ship's belly.

Then, putting her hands back on the ship controls, Holly easily maneuvered the craft in a quick, neat U-turn, then immediately accelerated for all the ship was worth, shooting off into the dark starry sky.

So, phase one, which had been to get Jayjay and all start safely back to the takeoff point in Fowl Manor, was complete. She really hoped there weren't a whole lot more phases to go.

* * *

><p>As soon as the cargo door was shut and Holly saw on the camera feed of the in-ship monitors that Artemis was indeed safe inside the mining shuttle, Holly finally allowed herself to exhale slowly, a long breath that rattled with suppressed nerves.<p>

Finally, they were going back. The mission, she hoped, would be effectively over soon and they would all make it back to where they were supposed to be, all alive after all.

"I'm so glad that all came out right," said Mulch, breaking the silence. "I was real tense there for a bit. Sweat breaking out, heard pounding, you know." He added after a moment's pause, "So, what about my extra incentive?"

"Extra incentive?" said Holly incredulously. "You didn't do anything. We didn't even go in."

"Yes, but I was _willing_ to help you," Mulch said seriously. "And I babysat the brains of this ragtag crew while your Mud Pet was making plans to rescue you." He patted the lemur sitting in his lap on the head again.

"Even if I had anything to give you, which I don't, I wouldn't even give you a..."

Holly stopped herself, shaking her head and wondering why she was letting the dwarf draw her into this. She changed gears and said instead, "Never mind, forget it. Just stop calling him 'my pet' and 'my Mud Boy' already. Where in Frond's name are you getting that?"

"Sorry. I meant to say 'lover.'"

Mulch was really pushing the limit here.

"Say that again, Mulch," said Holly in tones that tread a thin line between frighteningly calm and approaching-thunderhead-level murderous, "if you want to find yourself flying out the side hatch over there. Maybe you can tell me in the afterlife what it feels like to be a dwarf falling out of a shuttle from a couple thousand feet up."

Holly was distracted by a warning icon that flashed up on the display screen in front of her. She looked closer at the reading.

That wasn't good.

"Still haven't gotten that violent streak sorted out yet, I see," noted Mulch, remarkably unconcerned and showing absolutely no signs of repentance.

Holly ignored him as she instantly slowed the ship to subsonic levels in response to the warning and set the autopilot. She knew exactly what this meant – She should have been expecting it.

Mulch, meanwhile, was undoing the strap around Jayjay and his own ample stomach. "And speaking of 'lovers,'" he added, "I don't think I want to be around for this little heartfelt reunion. I like to keep my lunch down where I can."

He dodged around Holly's attempt to give him a hard punch in the arm and skipped to the side door opposite the bathroom.

He turned back a moment. "You should know I don't judge others' bizarre tastes," he said with a wink. "I had a cousin once who had a thing for ducks."

Holly wished she had something to throw at him or that this clunker had some lasers she could use. Unfortunately, she had to settle with the dirtiest look she could muster, which the dwarf probably missed anyway as the moment he got his jab out, he had already turned away and disappeared through the pneumatic doorway, chuckling all the way. No doubt he was off to look for valuables again.

Holly sighed and kneaded her forehead. She would have to start keeping a tally of all the kleptomaniac dwarf's offenses on this trip. The fact he kept getting away with continually poking and prodding her in especially sensitive areas for her already outrageously self-conscious, far too easily discomposed adolescent self was not lost on her.

Holly's eyes flickered to the live, in-ship camera-feed of the cargo hold, where Artemis was now getting to his feet.

She had no idea what kind of expression she had, but she noticed Jayjay watching her.

"Don't believe anything he says," Holly told him. "It's not true. Well, not exactly."

Jayjay showed his teeth in a broad grin and clapped.

"He's going to ruin you," Holly muttered, turning away.

Holly forced herself to focus. She moved her eyes to stare, frowning, at the readouts again. Great, complications. But at least they'd have Artemis here now; he'd been inside the compound in the main building, so maybe he would be able to shed some light on the situation. Knowing Artemis, he probably already not only knew about the fairy who'd _mesmerized_ Kronski, but already had several different plans formed for how to deal with it.

According to the warning, scanners from near the compound had detected their shuttle and downloaded available information about it. It took seriously advanced technology to do that – fairy technology. Those scanners had, in all probability, picked them up because of the speed with which their ship had moved, a speed several times greater than that of a typical Mud Man aircraft, so Holly's strategy was to remain at subsonic speeds and stay within the flight pathways regularly traversed by the Mud Men. It should allow them to slip under fairy radar, so to speak, at least for awhile.

As Holly's eyes remained fixed on the readout, her scowl deepened. They could never catch a break, could they? They had been so close to finally being done, and now the stress was going to stretch on for who knew how much longer. Holly really needed this to be over – She didn't think her body or mental state could take much more of a beating.

The sound of approaching footsteps behind her, however, for some reason made her forget all about this as her throat suddenly tightened slightly with nerves.

Expression frozen, Holly kept her eyes focused on the screen, delaying the moment she would have to turn to look at her friend for as long as possible, as she suddenly realized she had no clue what to say.

A sudden disconcerting idea drifted up from among the lower dregs of Holly's mind. If this was some kind of cliché daytime soap opera, she thought, or typical romance flick that only stayed in theaters for a week tops, she would probably turn slowly around, then throw her arms around him as soon as the boy came within striking distance, sobbing all the while, "I thought you were dead!"

...Needless to say, that was definitely not happening, not least of which because she had already had one emotional outburst that involved an excessive amount of crying recently, which had resulted in the end in what Holly was quickly coming to view as her new most embarrassing moment of her life.

Still, she was plagued with a kind of nervous energy, uncertainty. She was torn between turning and saying something moderately emotional, perhaps smiling a little and saying, "Looks like you made it out of another scrape, Mud Boy. Now let's get back to the manor so we can save your mother" or something totally glib, in line with their usual back and forth of smart comments such as "Well, survived again. Let me ask a question, Fowl. Could you have been a cockroach in another life?"

Holly, however, was saved the necessity of choosing how to set the atmosphere upon this reunion as Artemis spoke first.

"This may seem like a silly question," he began, and Holly turned her head partway so she could see him out of the corner of her eye standing in the entryway to the cockpit. She noticed a slightly perplexed expression on his face; however, Artemis was not looking in her direction. Instead, his gaze was fixed on the copilot's chair, where the lemur was now perched. "But is Jayjay..."

Holly understood what he meant. The person sitting in the copilot's chair was usually responsible for taking over steering when the pilot was engaged with other matters.

Holly felt a mingle of relief and disappointment. Relief because this conversation opener seemed fairly safe, with little chance of her dissolving into tears again. Disappointment because... well, she didn't really know why. Except that maybe after being held prisoner by the Extinctionists for a whole day, enduring all manner of physical discomfort, thinking she was going to die for a group of psychos' entertainment, then finally spending the last couple hours thinking her partner was dead instead, for the first thing he said to her to be some totally stupid unrelated thing about a lemur, it felt just a bit like an anticlimax.

"No. Autopilot," she replied. She added, if just a bit resentfully, "And nice to see you alive, by the way. You're welcome for the rescue."

She didn't really expect a reply so she was startled when she felt Artemis's long fingers gently touch her shoulder.

"Once again, I owe you my life," he said, and the real sincerity in his voice disarmed her as it had before. Holly kept her eyes trained safely on the readout screen, though her heartbeat sped up, the light thrumming like that of a bird's.

Holly had to admit, the reaction was like something out of an embarrassing high school romance fantasy. Which made her tempted to go find a mirror, so she could give herself a good wakeup-punch in the face.

"Now," said Artemis in a tone that clearly had 'Now that that's out of the way' tacked all over it, apparently quite blissfully unaware of any unusual response in the hormonal adolescent elf, "I hate to move directly from gratitude to petulance, but why have we slowed down? Time is running out. We had three days, remember? There are only hours left."

Right, like she had forgotten. Nothing to kill a sentimental atmosphere like Artemis's usual patronizing, and attentiveness to details concerning the mission. For a genius, the boy had a remarkably one-tracked mind. But then, she supposed she had to admit that that unyielding focus was one of the things she had always respected about him.

Besides, if every time one of them had a near-death experience they got blubbery and emotional, Holly had a feeling they'd probably be crying nonstop until Judgment Day.

* * *

><p>So Holly explained their situation, only finally turning to look her accomplice in the eye when she asked pointedly if he knew anything about it.<p>

Holly hadn't expected to like the answer and wasn't disappointed as Artemis simply replied with the two words she least wanted to hear right now.

"Opal Koboi."

Artemis took the copilot's seat as Jayjay, looking sour, scampered out of the way. As the teenager did so, he removed his broken tinted glasses and pocketed them inside his suit jacket, as casually as a businessman sitting down to a coffee table to chat with coworkers after a day at the office. The gesture drew Holly's attention to Artemis's pale arm which, for whatever reason, was bare to the elbow, the sleeve of the light, now rather worn suit of his "Pasteur" disguise rolled back. Her eyes went back to his face, and she also noticed he was still wearing that ridiculous fake goatee.

Artemis continued calmly, "Opal is behind everything. She's harvesting animal fluids to increase her own magic. If she gets her hands on Jayjay, she'll be invincible."

Holly had a feeling that a lot was being edited out and simplified with this explanation, but decided not to ask. He was probably telling her everything she really needed to know. Instead, as Artemis was talking, Holly's eyes wandered slightly. She suddenly she caught sight of something for the first time on Artemis's exposed arm, and she had to fight not to recoil.

Embedded in Artemis's wrist like a bite mark from a wild dog was what looked like about a dozen crimson circular holes, forming a strange, eerily perfect elliptical shape.

She quickly turned her eyes away.

"That's wonderful," she said sarcastically. "Opal Koboi. I knew this little trip was missing a psychotic element. If Opal pinged us, then she'll be on our tail in something a little more war-worthy than this clunker."

Holly was quick to answer Artemis's rapid-fire questions and gave him a quick briefing on what she was already doing, going slowly enough and staying near enough other air traffic to make themselves virtually invisible to Opal. Then at the last minute they would blast off for the manor and get into the time stream before Opal could catch them.

Artemis nodded, gaze shifting from hers as he stroked his fake beard thoughtfully. Holly noticed he had two blue eyes, still wearing the colored contact.

For an instant, Holly's eyes flickered down to his arm again, before she allowed her focus to drift back to the computer readouts before her. A nightmarish mental image she'd had earlier was playing in her mind again, the one of her laying restrained, or else drugged, flat on her back on an operating table as figures with white head caps and masks over their noses and mouths leaned over her with scalpels in order to dissect her piece by piece. Only now the image of her own form had transformed into Artemis's, the faceless doctors replaced by an enraptured Opal Koboi dressed in a white lab coat. She could just see the tiny pixie leaning over him, giggling like a schoolgirl as she hooked up the machines to suck him dry of all his fluids.

Pins and needles crawled up and down her arms at the thought.

However at that moment Mulch reappeared, head emerging through the ship's mailbox, which was enough to distract Holly from the grotesque imagery.

"Nothing much in here," commented the dwarf. "A few gold coins. What say I keep them?"

Scavenging as usual, then, she thought with exasperation. He asked that like he was hoping for someone to object, just so he could rub their face in it when he got his way anyway.

Mulch added as an unimportant side note to the results of his usual treasure hunting, "And did I hear someone mention Opal Koboi?"

"Don't worry about it," Artemis assured him. "Everything is under control."

Seeing as how he was standing in front of a teenage Mud Boy in a rather more than slightly ruffled suit, wearing a fake beard and with hair tangled and wild like something out of a Tarzan movie, and an adolescent fairy girl sitting at the ship's controls in a long dress covered with dirt and sand enough to pass as a street urchin, one expensive dress shoe on one foot and a holey sock on the other, it did not take Mulch much to find the humor in this statement.

The dwarf burst out laughing, a bit harder than was probably necessary. "Under control?" he snorted when he was done, though still continuing to chortle. "Like Rathdown Park was under control. Like the leather souk was under control."

Although it was a bit hard to take being said in such an obnoxious tone, Holly had to admit he had a point.

"You're not seeing us at our best," Artemis conceded. "But," he added matter-of-factly, "in time you will come to respect Captain Short and me."

Mulch looked as though he thought it more likely all the cast-off Extinctionists of the now-dissolved organization would take up volunteer work at a wildlife preservation center.

"I'd better go and look up _respect_ in the dictionary," he said dubiously, "because it mustn't mean what I think it means, eh, Jayjay?"

Jayjay, who had trotted over to where Mulch's face was still sticking through the mailbox as soon as the dwarf had appeared, chattered and clapped with evident delight.

Holly decided at this point that they had taken enough abuse.

"It looks like you've found an intellectual equal, Mulch," Holly put in as she turned back to monitoring the ship's instruments. "It's a pity he isn't a girl; then you could marry him."

It really was beginning to feel like things were getting back to normal after all this mayhem and certifiable insanity. She was piloting a hunk of garbage masquerading as a fairy aircraft, Artemis was sitting next to her pestering her with constant questions to fine-tune his plans, and in between, she and Artemis were joining forces to gang up on their pungent dwarf friend.

Although, in retrospect Holly thought she probably should have known better than to bait Mulch Diggums of all fairies, considering the leverage he'd gained against her since Rathdown Park. And unfortunately, he no longer had Holly's dangerously bad mood to deter him.

Mulch looked at her in apparent abject horror. "Romance outside your species. Now _that's _disgusting. What kind of weirdo would kiss someone when they weren't even part of the same species?"

Holly suddenly became deeply interested in the on-board flight instruments and the computer's readouts on the screen before her. Cheeks slightly pink, Holly had a feeling this was going to be a long ride back to the manor. She honestly couldn't wait until she got back into her adult body again, and was finally safe from all the mortification and embarrassment of adolescent nonsense and impulsive behavior.

Holly silently vowed to herself that the first thing she would do when she saw her dwarf friend again in the future was give him a good hard shove.

* * *

><p>AN: Hey, I'm posting a few days early. (: (Well, it is spring break after all, I've got time... Especially since my annoying word processor froze while I was trying to work on my homework anyway, dangit.)

So, as you know, writing fanfiction is all about trying new things, right? So I decided I would try to shake things up just a little. I explained things in my bio before now, but most of you probably don't look at that, so I'll say it again here. I decided to try combining chapters 28, which was pretty short (it ended after the 'phase one's over' paragraph) and 29, which was about average length, and take more time in posting to get the new, longer chapter ready.

A lot of you have been mentioning that longer chapters might be a better way to go about this story. Are there any opinions, having seen it, on whether this is a better setup? Is it more engaging to have longer chapters and possibly two-to-three-week intervals (maybe a month) than shorter chapters every week or four to five days? If I haven't chased you all away with my wordiness and having too many long, more tedious stretches, I would very, very much appreciate some feedback on this. (And to those of you who've already commented on these issues, thank you very much!) Even if some of you find it doesn't make much of a difference, I would like to hear that too.

Note about reviewing:

Okay, if you've actually read this chapter, this time I'm going to say please, please review! I'm not going to threaten not to update or anything if you don't (and this fanfiction probably isn't good enough that such threats would work anyway, eheh, though I will say reviews can and do encourage me to work on this fanfiction more, and update faster), but I really do appreciate it. Even if you don't have anything much to say and you only have twenty seconds or so to spare on a short message, or even if you found that particular chapter you just read on the ho-hum side, that's fine. It's not about review count; it's just that it's really the only way I can tell how many people are actually reading. (Visitor count and even alert count can't really tell me that) Even if you're just skipping around to the parts of the original TTP you like best, this fanfiction is so obscenely long that I wouldn't fault you for that either, lol, and I'd still like to hear what you thought of the parts you did read.

Like I said, I'm not going to try exhorting reviews out of you, because this is your spare time and you could be doing whatever you want with that time, and you've been kind enough to choose to use it to read what I've written, so if you do take time to review, that's totally your choice too; I'm grateful both to people who have just read as well as those who've both read and reviewed. But I've just realized recently that I tend to be on the pessimistic side, and I can't help but think whenever I post a new chapter, 'oh no, they all think it's going downhill and they've quietly slipped out the back exit' (which, to be fair, maybe a lot of it does seem like it's gone downhill recently X3).

I guess what I'm saying is, I know when I read fanfiction I have this mentality of, 'I'll review if there's something I can totally lavish praise on!' or I just decide not to review because there was something in the chapter/story I didn't like. But really, I'm trying to change that about myself, because I just don't feel that way about receiving reviews myself. Like anyone, I love getting long, thoughtful comments, but that doesn't mean I disregard shorter reviews that basically just say, 'hey, I've been interested enough to read this far,' because those are a great encouragement too.

Let me make it clear though that just because you haven't been doing that definitely doesn't mean I'm saying you've been doing anything wrong. (Oh, and on a side note, I'm also aware a lot of you won't read every chapter as it comes out; that's perfectly okay.) I know I've been the same way a lot of the time, and up until now I haven't made it clear that that's how I would want things anyway, so that's my fault. Just that sometimes when I'm reading a chapter, I'm not exactly sure what kind of review is welcome, and I always feel like I want to say something incredibly meaningful, and end up not reviewing if I can't think of anything, or I have a suggestion to make, but don't know how much constructive criticism the author really wants. (By the way, if you found something confusing or are leery about a choice I made in the writing, you're always free to tell me, even if it's something I can't change; it's still something I can think about in future projects) And so I just want to be open as I can about what my thought processes are, so you won't have to guess at where I'm coming from.

So, that's my philosophy, lol. Oh, and I almost forgot, I reposted chapters 1 and 2 with my newer (kind of experimental) versions. If you're interested, feel free to go take a look while you're waiting for the next chapter. Well then, until next time, and thanks to those of you who were nice enough to muddle through my ramblings at the end! (:

Posted 3/13/12


	30. Terminal Disease

Disclaimer: The characters, much of the dialogue, and sadly, even the plot are not mine; they all belong to Eoin Colfer.

Pages: 307, 308 – 309, 310 – 312

Chapter 29: Terminal Disease

Because they were forced to travel at an almost unbearably sluggish pace to avoid Opal, the trip was destined to be a long one. Holly guessed at least eight to ten hours minimum, which would put them dangerously close to the deadline, but it couldn't be helped.

Holly figured they both might as well buckle down and try to get some rest, recharge a bit from their latest ordeal. Almost as soon as things had begun to die down, her weak limbs and empty stomach reminded her that she needed to get some food and liquid in her before long or she wasn't going to be much use to anyone. She had not eaten a thing in over twenty-four hours while Kronski had been holding her captive, and her swollen tongue felt like sandpaper against the inside of her mouth.

Mulch had disappeared somewhere again, probably to look for more loot – the dwarf could have made a great Energizer Bunny if the humans who produced the commercial could learn to live the smell. Jayjay had apparently followed as he was nowhere to be seen.

Holly turned to Artemis, who was still sitting in the copilot's chair, the boy staring out over the dark sandstorm passing below them, thoughts unfathomable to Holly passing behind his eyes like the quiet roiling approach of an ocean wave – ephemeral in and of itself, yet timeless in its continued recycling, unending in it's gentle assault against the shore.

"I don't supposed you manged to save anything to eat," she commented.

Artemis turned to her. A smile played on his lips. "A little. Fortunately, I believe our resident bottomless pit has been distracted by everything else this ship has to offer."

Holly grinned. "So I noticed."

Artemis stood, and strode over to the shuttle's minifridge. Despite his assertion, he still breathed a slight sigh of relief when he opened the door and found an adequate assortment of contents still sitting there. "Yes, excellent," he said. "It would indeed appear our friend has not yet relieved us of _all _our supplies while the two of us were caught up in mundane battles for our lives."

He reached inside, and when he turned around his arms were full of nutribars, a few flavors of smoothies to choose from, and a couple of water canteens. He awkwardly carried the stack over and took his seat in the copilot's chair again, setting his load on the flight dash.

Holly downed half the canteen in one swig and she would have stuffed an entire nutribar into her mouth whole if she hadn't noticed Artemis watching her, carefully peeling back the specially modified, environment-friendly protective wrapping on his own bar.

Stomach growling like some predatory animal of its own, Holly forced herself to show restraint as she pulled off the wrapper almost sedately, but couldn't quite stop herself ripping a good-sized chunk off the bar with her teeth. However, she chewed slowly enough that she wouldn't accidentally bite off her own tongue.

"Kronski didn't feed you while you were held captive at the compound then, I take it," Artemis commented lightly, taking a delicate bite of his own bar. He oriented his body more toward the front of the ship and their makeshift table, as though this were a throwaway remark, but his twin blue eyes still remained fixed on Holly, burning with a quiet intensity.

Holly swallowed, then shook her head, shrugging. "I don't think he wanted to risk taking off my tape. Butler told him about the _mesmer_." She had gotten down another bite before Artemis spoke again.

"I do suppose it would be counterproductive to feed a prisoner one was planning to dispose of anyway." His voice was unusually quiet, but an underlying contempt of such strength churned beneath the surface that for a moment she was startled.

Holly hesitated, glancing at Artemis, who was looking out of the dark front window again. Despite his tone, he didn't look angry. Just tired.

"Guess not," said Holly, her own tone coming out strangely indifferent. She could honestly say that all the ill-feeling and bitterness she had been building up against Kronski during the trial he had put her through had deserted her in the souk. It wasn't that she forgave the man, just that she could no longer bring herself to care much about what happened to him, about "karma" or anything else, so long as he wasn't in a position to go around destroying more innocent species.

Holly suddenly smiled slightly as a thought occurred to her.

"Now that I think about it, you were a much more hospitable kidnapper," she said. "Feeding me in my dungeon. Well, at least Juliet was going to before I decided I wasn't going to sit around playing the nice hostage anymore. You could have forbidden it out of spite, lower my strength to make me easier to handle and all that. Thanks, Arty."

Artemis snorted slightly. "But I wasn't planing on doing away with you. You were of more use to us in relatively good physical condition." Artemis peered down at her over his hand on which his chin rested. There was a hint of amusement in his eyes, but Holly thought she also saw a guardedness about them too.

Holly laughed suddenly. She consumed the rest of her nutribar and tilted back her canteen a second time, then set it back down with a clatter on the dash above the readout screens, and turned to the human beside her. "Is that just a bit of guilt I hear creeping into your voice, Artemis Fowl? Wait, I better write this down, it could be a historic moment." Her grin softened a little as she turned back to the dash. "Whatever," she said, shrugging. "It's all in the past now."

Artemis was quiet a moment. As he opened his mouth however, Holly said quickly, "Wait, don't even say it. Okay, _technically_ it's in the future here I guess, but I really don't care. That's still the past for us."

"I wasn't..." Artemis began, but trailed off, smiling a little and shaking his head.

Holly suddenly remembered something else. "Oh, that reminds me, thanks for saving me in the souk by the way," she added.

Artemis's smile seemed to freeze. His only response was a slight twitch of one thin eyebrow. "Oh?" he said in a would-be casual tone.

Holly reached for another bar sitting in the small, further-dwindling pile of foodstuff between them, but hesitated as she realized that Artemis had gone very still, piercing blue just visible in her peripheral vision eyes boring into the side of her head.

Despite the lack of sarcasm in her tone, Holly understood then what Artemis would think she meant. She explained quickly to clear up the confusion. "When Kronski's guards were after me in the souk, _little_ Artemis distracted them by throwing out the diamonds he got as payment from selling me to Kronski. I still don't know what to make of it. But I wouldn't have gotten away if not for that. When you think about it, technically he'sa younger version of you, so in a way it was thanks to you." Thinking about it again, she felt the complete disbelief return as strong as before. In a way, the scene in her memory still felt like a dream. A dream so unreal as to be ridiculous in hindsight if it hadn't actually happened.

Artemis pursed his lips as he considered this. "Did he now? I wonder..." His gaze, still directed at her, slipped out of focus for a moment. Finally he shook his head and said, his brow creased in thought, "No, I can't say what might have triggered such a generous act. That is indeed remarkably odd."

"I'm beginning to think it isn't so much," said Holly, finishing up her second bar.

Neither said a thing, an odd silence that was neither awkward nor exactly comfortable filling the cabin between them.

"I'm afraid I don't understand what you're trying to say," said Artemis after awhile, and Holly thought he sounded not unlike his ten-year-old self, when the boy had said to Kronski, _I don't understand the question._

Holly shrugged, reaching for yet another nutribar, then stopped herself. Her stomach was a bit sensitive and shrunken from the full day's fast, so she would probably be better off if she held herself back. However, still looking for an excuse not to explain herself, she grabbed a smoothie and downed it instead. Something inside her made her reluctant to verbalize the new, strange view of the world she felt was forming in her mind; perhaps she still hadn't completely forgiven him yet.

After another long pause, Artemis finally turned back to looking out the front windshield, at the dark swirling sand below. He leaned forward to rest his chin on his palm again, then stopped, hesitantly bringing his head a few centimeters back up off his hand as though he'd just realized something. The next moment he went to work tearing off the fake goatee.

"So, Mud Boy," said Holly, smirking, "tell me, was that part of the disguise really necessary, or do you always tend to get a bit carried away when you get a chance to play dress-up?" Butler, though ever the staunch keeper of his master's secrets, had relaxed the policy just a bit when they'd done some three-way communication after they'd come back from Hybras, and so Holly knew the story about her ever-formally attired friend's strategy to break into Crane and Sparrow's safe-deposit box at the International Bank in Munich.

"I needed any element I could find that would make me appear older," Artemis replied, poker-faced. "And it was imperative I disguise myself well enough that Kronski not be able to pick up any resemblance to the Fowls."

His lips curved in a slight smile then, but, though perhaps she was imagining it, it seemed to her that the usual condescending self-importance he always had when he described the various aspects of his elaborate plans had seemed a bit half-hearted. If she didn't know better, she would have thought Artemis seemed a bit... dispirited. She'd just handed him the perfect opportunity to go on to his favorite pastime of lecturing lesser minds with the brilliantness of his schemes, yet that was all he had to say. For some reason, that bothered her.

"Are you going to eat that?" Holly finally asked after yet another long stretch of quiet. She pointed at the remaining nutribar sitting untouched between them.

"You go ahead." His eyes were on the darkness outside the shuttle again.

Holly took the bar slowly, but didn't open it right away, still wondering if she should hold off. "The sun will be rising soon," she commented, but Artemis didn't respond.

Holly's eyes flickered back to Artemis's exposed wrist and the collection of red holes. She could make out now-dried trails of blood running from them.

"I'm guessing you had a pretty eventful time at the compound after I left," she probed hesitantly.

"Indeed," said Artemis. "Opal is as charming a host as I might have expected." He turned, the smile playing about his mouth again. "In other words, if given the choice, I believe I would prefer to face the real flame pit the next time."

Holly didn't know what to say exactly. She wanted to know more, but she got the feeling that, though he was saying it in a light, joking tone, a part of him probably really meant that. It must have been horrible – however, she somehow she doubted talking about it would make it any better, so she said nothing.

Holly sighed to herself. Then, looking back at the bar for a second, shrugged a little to herself and gave in to the impulse to finish the very last bit of food of what Artemis had set out. When it was gone, she still somehow didn't feel quite satisfied, but she knew she really would make herself sick if she tried to force down anymore.

"It'll be a relief to get back to the future," she commented. "Safe from murderous Extinctionists and Opal Koboi and snot-nosed criminal masterminds, at least for awhile."

Artemis glanced her way. He still wore that same quiet smile, as though he agreed with her. However, as he turned his gaze back to the window Holly thought she imagined that, as he did so, he did not quite meet her eyes.

* * *

><p>Not long after the food was gone and their conversation petered out, Holly's eyelids began to feel like lead as the day's events caught up with her. She felt as though a herd of stampeding buffalo had trampled her flat, her entire body aching and sore. It wasn't long before she began to catch herself letting her head lull forward, and she would snap back up only to have it drift down toward her chest again.<p>

Holly blinked profusely and shook herself, then turned to tell Artemis that at least one person should stay up and keep watch on the instruments, to make sure Opal didn't find them.

Artemis replied immediately, "You sleep. I will keep watch and wake you if anything of note happens. I am not in need of rest at the moment, but if that changes I will see if I can work something out with the third member of our little band."

Holly tried to protest at first – the idea of Artemis being so generous was a disturbing one and no one could have blamed her for being dubious – but Artemis simply responded by turning his sharp blue eyes on her, staring back into her mismatched ones, and repeating softly, but with unmistakable authority, "_Sleep._"

Perhaps it was because she was so exhausted and not fully in her right mind, but a strange sensation came over her. Almost as though he had injected _mesmerizing_ layers to his voice to make his commands irresistible, the weight on her eyelids and in her limbs seemed to double. Her rational mind darkened and drifted into standby, so that for a moment she felt oddly safe where she was, free from suspicion.

Her vision bleary now and too exhausted to keep her brain working as it should, Holly decided to let herself give in to the feeling this time. Holly closed her mouth and, nodding sluggishly once, slumped, then curled up in the pilot's seat. For a moment her senses lingered in the vague world between consciousness and sleep as always, and incoherent bits of images and incomplete thoughts she wouldn't remember whenever she awoke drifted aimlessly through her mind, until at last she sank into unconsciousness.

* * *

><p>When Holly's eyes opened again, she had a moment where she didn't have a clue where or when she was. She sat up and looked around, taking in her surroundings. Finding an older shuttle with less-than-stellar accommodations, it all slowly came back to her.<p>

Bright light was shining in through the front window and falling on the face a tall, pale corpse-like figure reclining in the chair next to hers, eyes closed, apparently dozing.

Holly's heartbeat sped up as it occurred to her that he really looked dead rather than asleep.

"Artemis?" she said tentatively, touching his elbow. She noticed he was dressed once again in his parents' old tracksuit.

"_Finally_," exclaimed a guttural voice behind her. "I thought you'd never wake up from your beauty nap. You two must think you're on some kind of relaxing romantic cruise here. Sleeping on the job all the time."

Holly was still a bit out of it so she let that comment slide. "What? How long has it been?" Holly took a look at the time and rolled her eyes in exasperation. "It's only been a few hours," she said. "It's not even mid-morning yet. And Artemis was awake for a lot of that."

"Maybe," said Mulch," but I can't stand being in here much longer." He pointed a shaking finger at the front windshield where the rays of bright sunshine shown through into the cockpit, as though it were some big black beast coming to get him. "And I can't stand anymore of this heat."

Holly did notice then that the room was uncomfortably warm.

"If I have to stay in here much longer, I'm gonna – "

"Then go already," said Holly, gesturing hurriedly at the annex bathroom. "For heaven sakes, don't stand around here talking about it."

Mulch was pale behind his beard as he went for the bathroom door. However, he was still well enough to stop and say to her with an obnoxious wink, "Oh, and Captain, I have to admit I'm starting to grow rather attached to the Mud Boy over there. So please don't be doing anything inappropriate to him while he's defenseless when I'm not there to supervise, eh?"

This time Holly was ready and she had her only remaining shoe ripped off her foot so fast her hand for a second vaguely resembled a striking cobra. "Go throw up your insides!" she barked.

But Mulch, guffawing, was already safely inside the bathroom by the time Artemis's shoe connected violently with the metal with a sound like a bowling ball taking down a row of pins.

Holly remembered Artemis trying to sleep and winced, glancing back at him guiltily. Artemis stirred and grunted, but miraculously didn't wake.

Holly sighed, lips curled sharply downward in a frown of annoyance. Well, she supposed Mulch's ribbing was one way to get her up. She was more than wide awake now. Really, did he ever stop? She hoped this wasn't a tradition in the making; he had to get tired of throwing out the same old jokes over and over sometime.

As, still frowning slightly, Holly started to turn back to the controls, she noticed a pair of reproachful orange eyes staring up at her. She glanced down and saw that Jayjay had one of the leftover wrappers from the food Artemis had taken from the minifridge clutched in his tiny black hands.

"What?" said Holly in response to the look of what could only be described as indignation. "Don't tell me you're going to develop an appetite like him, too. Next you'll be swiping wallets from innocent bystanders off the street."

Jayjay turned away from her, as though giving her the silent treatment. It seemed the lemur now considered the co-pilot's seat his own, as he leaped up into it, regardless of the fact it already had an occupant. Jayjay turned around from where he stood perched on Artemis's leg to stare at her again.

She looked back at the lemur for a moment, then suddenly smiled reassuringly.

"Almost there," she said. "Soon this is all going to be over. Hope you like it in the future."

Her gaze shifted automatically from the large, innocent amber eyes of the furry animal, to the sleeping face of the human next to him. For a moment, there was a flicker of something at the back of her mind. A feeling of something like melancholy.

"_That wouldn't be so bad, would it?"_

She turned away, closing her eyes, breathing slowly and deeply. It would all be over soon. Right now they were in the past, a shadowy, mythical place that for all intents and purposes did not exist in the reality they lived in in the future. So when she went back, she would leave it all behind here, in this time. Every last bit of it.

* * *

><p>The old mining shuttle, which was made primarily for underground use, and had been in need of new parts plus a variety of repairs even before it had been commandeered by the party of outlaws, eventually began to show fervent signs of a need for an early retirement as they neared their destination.<p>

Mulch was able to come out of the bathroom as they drew closer to the more temperate climate of Ireland and the sun had begun to sink in the distance. Artemis had woken up some time earlier, so they were all gathered together, each ready for this mission to be over and done.

At the moment Holly, who had changed out of the abaya and back into Artemis's trashed designer suit, leaving off the suit jacket to stay cool, was devoting all her attention to coaxing the shuttle onward.

_Just a few more miles,_ she kept telling it every little while. _Hang in there. A few more miles to go. Just a few more._

"I had to speed up for a bit back there, or we wouldn't make it in time," Holly said. "So Opal knows where we are now."

She thought Artemis looked rather paler than usual. "A necessary risk."

"She can't catch us now anyway."

Artemis nodded, though again he would not meet her eyes. He had taken out the blue contact earlier while she had been asleep, so now his irises were back to their usual colors. "Yes."

Holly had a feeling he knew something that he wasn't telling her, but she was afraid to ask, or maybe too tired. The effects of her three-or-so-hour nap were beginning to wane and she was starting to feel hungry again.

In addition, Holly was also now battling a new feeling in the pit of her stomach that had sprung up not too long ago. It was like a tightness, a weakness. Not enough to make her feel sick or affect her motor skills, but just enough to make her feel not altogether well. It had taken her some time before she realized that it was the spark of magic from Nº1, the one that was supposed to help guide her back to their own time. They had only had three days, and now the power in the spark was beginning to fade.

When Holly finally brought the shuttle over the high stone wall of the manor, the atmosphere seemed to grow suddenly heavier, straining under the weight of their finally being so near the end of all their struggles. Artemis sat next to Holly in the copilot's chair, his serious face made eerie by the orange light cutting through the cabin as he stared down at the large, old building before him that was his home. Holly was sure his mind was now back with his mother in the Fowl Manor of his own time.

Only a few days ago, Holly had been approaching the manor very much like they were doing now, in response to Artemis's grave message. The only difference was that she had Artemis sitting next to her this time around. Despite her ever persistent second-guessing of herself, a consequence of being this jumpy, inexperienced adolescent, she felt oddly more confident this time around.

"Well done, Holly," said Artemis, eyes unmoving from the familiar grounds below. "You did it."

Holly was used to taking this kind of encouragement in stride from her work with the LEP, but she felt herself involuntarily thrill at the unexpected praise.

_I really need to get back to my real body_, she thought a little desperately, as Artemis continued on with instructions on where to put down the shuttle and she adjusted the mangled vehicle's course over the estate accordingly. No denying she was definitely getting worse.

_Maybe being trapped as a 'teenager' is like a terminal disease,_ she mused. As in, the longer she was one, the symptoms would keep getting progressively worse, her brain just continuing to devolve until she was twirling a lock of fake silver hair while lying amidst a field of dandelions, plucking petals from a daisy saying, 'he loves me, he loves me not.'

The thought very nearly made Holly lose the nutribars she'd managed to cram down earlier, and she quickly censored the disturbing image. She glanced at Artemis, glad that he couldn't actually read minds. She hoped these were not the first signs of madness, and instead could be fairly attributed to exhaustion from all the trying events of the last three days – the way a person hopes a slight cough is just a passing cold, rather than an early indication of lung cancer.

Artemis's gaze was still fixed on the window where Holly knew his mother's bedroom to be. His face was expressionless, in control, but his hands, which were knitted together in his lap, were tense with anxiety. Of course, there was probably almost no one he loved so much as his mother. He would do just about anything to have her well again.

Holly remembered then of Butler telling her something else, other than the International Bank episode. Apparently, during the exchange of Nº1 and Minerva Paradizo, Artemis had asked his bodyguard, _Is it normal, during puberty, to feel these blasted feelings of attraction at stressful times?_ Much to Artemis's dismay, Holly had laughed long and hard in sheer delight. She loved seeing the mastermind reduced to the cares of ordinary beings. However, she wasn't laughing now.

The diagnosis sure looks grim, she thought as she turned away.

* * *

><p>Holly guided the ship in a careful descent. However, as she did so, the adolescent fairy felt a sudden jolt as something very suddenly occurred to her that probably should have crossed her mind hours ago. She nearly groaned in frustration with her own idiocy. She'd been drugged, stuffed in a trunk and a duffel bag, nearly formally executed by lunatics, almost strangled to death, not to mention just about everything else she'd gone through. And now, after all that, she suddenly wished she could go back and go through all of it again rather than face what was coming next.<p>

_It's not a big deal,_ she assured herself. _You're saving an entire species. _ _And Artemis's mother. And possibly all the fairies of Haven who might have contracted Spelltropy otherwise. It'll be nothing. Really._

Unfortunately, hormonal adolescents tended to have a penchant for getting their priorities mixed up, and Holly had to fight very hard not to cringe as an image of the wardrobe in Artemis's study appeared in her mind.

The first time around, things had been awkward at best. And that was when she was a mature adult who couldn't have thought of this Mud Boy in _those_ terms even if she had tried. Now she had kissed him for Frond's sake, and she'd been such an idiot as to fail to try to pass it off as temporary insanity or possibly brain damage, so he was well aware of where things had stood, at least temporarily.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, Holly had a strong urge to go off somewhere and weep. A little embarrassment to save the world was one thing, but total and complete humiliation, she would still have to think on that.

Meanwhile, while all this ridiculous drama was playing out in her head, outwardly Holly's face was its usual mask of professional resilience and concentration. She undid the manor's alarms – in eight years the security wouldn't be so easy for a fairy to bypass, she thought – and did a thermal scan on the building to make sure the coast was clear. Fortunately and as expected, the heat of only one body showed up.

"Good. Just Mother," said Artemis, breathing a slight sigh of relief. "She will have taken her sleeping tablets by now. _Little me_ can't be back yet."

Little me. Cute.

However, Holly was too tired and too preoccupied with other unpalatable thoughts to pass a smart comment, and she focused on setting the creaking junk heap down around back where Artemis had specified. It was a rocky landing despite her efforts. As unwieldy as the overtaxed craft had become, it was a little like piloting a boulder with boosters.

Once they were safely on the ground, the shuttle sitting amidst a small pile of debris that had once been part of the Fowl Estate's enormous backyard patio, Holly released the controls with a sigh. She knew there was no time to waste now. The deadline was drawing ever nearer, as was Opal.

Artemis meanwhile picked up Jayjay and said, smiling down at the little lemur, "Are you ready for more adventures, little man?"

Holly glanced at him, surprised he would show such affection, especially to an animal.

However, Jayjay it seemed wasn't buying it. Worriedly, the lemur shot a look at Mulch as though for guidance.

The dwarf reached forward and scratched Jayjay's chin fondly. "Always remember that _you_ are the smart one," he advised.

As Mulch turned and began shoving everything he could reach from the on-board fridge into a duffel he'd picked up somewhere, Holly, glancing at Artemis and shrugging slightly, assured the dwarf he could keep the shuttle and everything in it. He would be able to make quite a chunk off what was stored inside, then trash the old thing to remove all trace the time travelers had been there. After all, the last thing they needed was for Foaly or some other tech-head to get a hold of it and discover evidence that elven Captain Holly Short had stolen it and been using the thing to pal around with a well-known criminal dwarf and a human.

Holly found she actually did hope for Mulch to have an easy time for awhile, despite the fact that his doing well was bound to mean trouble for someone else, and despite how irritating he had become as of late. She felt a kind of nostalgia for the pungent friend she knew back in their own time.

When Mulch readily agreed, grinning at the prospect of demolition duty, Holly returned his grin with one of her own. "Good. And remember, when we meet again, none of this ever happened, or it probably won't."

"My lips are sealed," replied Mulch, with not entirely sincere solemnity.

Holly's eyebrows knitted momentarily, suddenly curious. Did the Mulch from their time really have memories of all this happening from the start, and hadn't said a word? Not so much as a hint? Somehow, Holly had trouble seriously entertaining the idea he could have had that much restraint, especially when some of it would make for such juicy blackmail material.

Of course, there was always the possibility that because they had just changed the past, the Mulch from their time would now have these new memories when they returned there. She imagined him sitting across from her behind the desk of their formerly shared detective agency, surrounded by mounds of reeking garbage and unidentifiable suspect substances as ever, picking at his huge teeth as he grinned at her. _Naughty, naughty, Captain... I wonder what the public at large would think if this tidbit happened to leak out._

Holly nearly blanched. To have Mulch Diggums forever tormenting her about that little slip-up was the stuff of horror films. She was certain there was only so much she'd be able to take. For a moment her mind drifted and she could just hear the breaking news story in Lillian Frond's voice: _After years of service, it seems first-ever female Recon Captain Holly Short simply snapped yesterday. Mulch Diggums, dwarf partner to a successful PI firm was found strangled to death in his apartment. Short is suspected of being mentally unstable, and citizens are advised to keep a safe distance. A substantial reward is being offered for any tips leading to her capture, so if you have any information on this case, please call this toll free number..._

"Now, there's something I would pay to see," said Artemis, interrupting Holly in her morbid thoughts. The teenager was smirking as he slid around the large dwarf to the shuttle's side exit. "Mulch Diggums with his mouth closed."

Artemis and Mulch spoke a few of their own parting words, even shaking hands, which made Jayjay shoot out a little black paw in imitation, also looking for a handshake from his hairy friend.

"You look after the human, Jayjay," Mulch told the little lemur. "He's a bit dim, but he means well."

Holly had to bite back a grin.

* * *

><p>Mulch raised the shuttle from the courtyard behind the manor. Holly winced as the shielded ship took off the top of an old ash tree and wobbled dangerously before going higher and shooting off into the glowing red light of the evening sky.<p>

"A bit dim, but means well," said Holly when the ship was out of sight. "That's certainly a step up, Arty."

Artemis smiled thinly at her. "Yes, thank you for that observation. Now, we had better get moving. Mother is the only one here, so there is little danger of being discovered. Speed must be the priority over caution."

Holly nodded as she pulled on the silver wig and suit jacket, which she figured had to be returned to the manor where they belonged, no matter what condition they were in. "Right."

They entered the manor through the kitchen, and as they made their way briskly through the rooms of the outrageously enormous house, Artemis continued to intone words of comfort to Jayjay to keep him calm while Holly kept behind them, on the lookout for signs of Opal or little Artemis – she didn't know which one scared her more.

"Come on, Artemis," said Holly urgently, though as much to herself as her human companion. "Nº1 is weaker now, so we have to jump soon."

"Nearly there," he murmured, speaking to her in a tone not unlike how he had been speaking to Jayjay a moment before. "Seconds away."

As they arrived at Artemis's study, Holly could have breathed a sigh of relief. The effort to hold onto Nº1's spark was increasing, and she found the mounting pressure an adequate distraction to drive most other thoughts from her mind. Despite all her previous anxieties, she made her way to the wardrobe first thing almost eagerly, too tense and exhausted to care anymore. She just wanted to get home.

However, the tug of Nº1's magic and the effort it took to hold onto it oscillated in and out like a dying double-A battery, and as the pressure receded again, Holly's uncooperative eyes watched her friend out of the corner of her eye as he carefully set down Jayjay and approached the wardrobe after her. She searched for signs in his posture or expression that he was feeling as self-conscious as she was. After all, quite possibly the only thing more unbearably uncomfortable than changing in a room with a person toward whom your adolescent body had at some point had an unwelcome hormonal response, was changing in a room being the object of said signs of utterly unsolicited attraction.

However, Artemis didn't appear to notice her stress as he unzipped the blazer of his tracksuit without the slightest hesitation, at which point Holly quickly looked away.

Perhaps there's nothing to worry about after all, she thought as she struggled out of little Artemis's white button-down shirt. Quite possibly Artemis had completely forgotten the entire episode already. After all, if his brain really did work like a computer, then he could not only store unlimited amounts of information in perfect detail, but he could also go back and delete unwanted files whenever he wanted. Or maybe it was simpler than that, and he was just convinced his confession of having blackmailed her had cured her, so, according to his calculations, he was perfectly safe now.

Good, thought Holly. Perfect. Now it was just her, standing here feeling like today might be a good day to test whether it was physically possible to die of embarrassment.

_Come on, just a bit longer,_ she encouraged herself. _You just need to last a few more minutes. Then you'll be free of that way of thinking._

They stood side by side in the doorway of the wardrobe, putting their shoes away (Holly unfortunately only had one left) and returning the borrowed clothing to where they had found it, Holly handing Artemis the silver wig so he could replace it in the box on top.

As Holly, back to just how she had been when she had first arrived in this time, turned to go, her gaze fell momentarily on the mirror that hung inside the wardrobe door, and she caught sight of her own face staring back at her.

I really do look young, Holly realized as she stared into the round, mismatched eyes. She wondered vaguely, if her body had reverted to the way it was twenty or so years before, why her eyes had not also changed. Perhaps these last few years she had known Artemis had become such an integral part of her life that the evidence of it could not be erased, even subconsciously.

Holly was breathing harder now. She doubted she could hold onto the spark for too much longer.

They moved back to the center of the room. "Good," said Artemis as they stood there. "This is the spot. The exact spot."

Holly glanced up at him. Though he looked almost as exhausted as she felt, there was also relief, even excitement there, an expression she knew was probably reflected on her own face. They had done it. Mission accomplished. While she was anticipating getting back to her own time and escaping once and for all this uncertainty and adolescent confusion, Artemis must be thinking about how he would now be able to save his mother.

"About time," replied Holly, breath coming even faster now. "I'm having trouble holding onto the signal. It's like running after a smell."

Apparently Artemis's outward complete lack of embarrassment and sudden memory loss concerning her behavior a couple of days before was not pretense, because instead of reaching out to awkwardly touch fingers as before, he put an arm around her shoulder, allowing her to lean against him for support as she gasped for breath.

Based on previous experience, the sudden, unexpected contact of Artemis's pale hand against her bare shoulder, Holly would have expected her heart-rate to jack up. However, her teenage body was unpredictable as always. Instead, the moment she felt Artemis supporting her, she slumped suddenly, as though she had just realized she was standing on purely borrowed energy. She felt weak from all the adrenaline and stress of the last few days. All the worrying and frustration, the effort of trying to be her usual reliable self when she was so full of self-doubt and fear and unwanted amorous emotions.

"I thought you were dead," she said suddenly. She could not bring herself to meet his eyes as she said it, though she was pleased to say her eyes were perfectly dry.

"Me too," Artemis answered.

Holly nodded slightly, relieved he hadn't passed a snide remark about how she should have known better, or asked if she wouldn't actually have been secretly relieved to be rid of him. She had watched both her mother and her commander die, people who she had always felt were constants of the world, people who she had not been able to imagine ever being anywhere or anything other than where and what they were then, when they were alive and vital. When she thought of her friend so close to death in Rathdown Park, or that moment when Kronski told her that his gas chamber had killed him, or even all the way back to when Opal had sent the biobomb to his hotel room, she could not help but feel the deep sickness in her stomach she had felt almost for an entire week while her mother had laid dying, and in those seconds that seemed to last a lifetime before Julius had been blown apart. It was not just the loss of someone she cared about. It was to be suddenly alone in the world. To lose all sense of security.

Of course, when she got back to her own time, she would not be an insecure adolescent anymore, a child who so feared not having someone else to rely on. She would be her usual independent self, free from such stifling, choking bonds.

Holly allowed her eyes to move back up to his face at last. But she supposed she couldn't exactly help the way she was now.

Holly said nothing and Artemis went on to add, instantly diffusing what could have almost turned into an exceedingly rare tender moment between them, "Then I realized I couldn't die, not in this time."

Holly wondered if it was just a complete and total lack of any sense of appropriateness or decorum, or if little comments such as these were specifically calculated to prevent the conversation from drifting over into something awkward or mushy – i.e., dangerous territory for criminal masterminds and tough Recon jocks.

_If they are calculated, by all means keep doing it, Arty,_ she thought. Someone had to keep things sane.

"I presume you're going to explain that to me," she said incredulously, her curiosity upon being teased with this piece of information simply too strong to resist. Not even the discomfort of holding onto that bit of Nº1's magic inside her was enough to stop her from opening herself up to the possibility of a Fowl lecture.

"Later," he said, which was probably better for her health overall. "Over supper. Now can we open the time stream, friend?"

This new, more genial version of her friend, no doubt brought on by the prospect of being so close to completion of his mission, took Holly a bit aback, and she hesitated. However, before she had time to reply, she heard the curtain of the nearby tall window draw back, revealing two new unwelcome figures standing hidden in the shadows.

It seemed her treatment was going to be getting postponed a bit longer.

* * *

><p>AN: Huh, I really didn't think I'd be able to get to this until next week, but I managed to fit it in somehow. (:

But yeah, this sort of stuff is really hard for me to write. XD (There's enough romance-related nonsense in this one to make you gag, lol. As I was working on this, I'd cut something out, then add more somewhere else.) But the adolescent thing is kind of in its death throes, so I ended up in a way going all out I guess. I have decidedly mixed feelings about it in the end. X3 (Lol, it was ridiculously long, yet in the end not much happened. You know that feeling where you think some scenes can probably be cut down or out entirely, but there's one line in every one of them that needs to be in there? And for some reason they don't seem to work the same way unless you have all that buffering)

Notes: The whole thing with Mulch leaving... Again, this was another thing I wasn't clear on, since the book cuts right from when Artemis and Holly bid him farewell to when they are already inside the manor. So is Mulch still at the manor when he's burying the coin to Shammy and Opal shows up? I thought at first he probably was, since it's mentioned he's thrown near a 'silver ash tree,' and ash trees are specifically mentioned as being one of the kind of trees on the Fowl Manor grounds.

However, it seems like Mulch had already ditched the ship, since he only has the shuttle starter chip in his pocket. Plus, if he woke up on the Fowl Manor grounds, I imagine when things were happening in book 1, he would have had to have remembered being there before, so it wouldn't have made sense.

Anyway, wow, eight reviews last chapter! I've never gotten so many! Thank you very, very much, I really appreciate it. All I said about reviews last chapter still stands, so please tell me what you thought, or even just if you read it! (;

Posted 4/4/12


	31. The Truth

Disclaimer: The characters, much of the dialogue, and sadly, even the plot are not mine; they all belong to Eoin Colfer.

Pages: 312, 313 – 315

Chapter 30: The Truth

Dressed in shining, silver foil suits that would effectively prevent their heat signatures showing up on a thermal scan, none other than ten-year-old Artemis and Butler stood by the study window, their mismatched figures casting long shadows across the carpet from the evening light outside.

"What was that about a time stream?" said the boy as he surveyed the pair where they stood exposed in the middle of the study, smugness in every line of his small, pointed face.

Butler stood silently next to him. As he deftly stripped out of the silver foil suit in several swift, efficient movements, one of the man's usual big guns became visible, held fast to his chest by a military-grade shoulder holster. His gaze trained on their young adversaries, his guard never dropped once.

Holly couldn't think. She didn't even bother trying to move from where she was. She had no magic, not even enough to try the _mesmer _again. But even if Butler hadn't been armed and as fast as any panther, and she and Artemis were allowed the chance to contrive some way to escape from here, they were out of time. Holly could feel Nº1's magic dissipating with every second and, if they did leave, by the time they were able to get back it would be too late.

However, instead of the paralyzing fear and despair Holly probably ought to have been feeling at a moment like this, a flicker of irritation stirred at the back of her mind. They had literally been a step away from being in the clear. Now it was going to end like this? Thwarted, not by this time's incarnation of sinister, clinically psychopathic Opal Koboi, or greedy, depraved Damon Kronski, or a hoard of spoiled, insatiable Extinctionists, but by a ten-year-old version of the person who'd dragged her here in the first place?

An unusual note of urgency crept into Artemis's tone as he said, echoing Holly's thoughts, "There isn't time for this."

"I think there is," said boy obnoxiously as he unzipped his own foil suit. Almost leisurely he pulled it back off his arms and stepped out of it, discarding the mass of glimmering silver by the window. "You have broken into my house again; the least you can do is explain that time stream comment." His sharp blue eyes lingered on his older self. "Not to mention the fact that you are alive."

They had come too far to hope for secrecy now. As dangerous as it was, they had no options left, and so without hesitation Artemis jerked his head to fling the long locks of hair half concealing his face away from his eyes. "You must recognize me now," he said with a tad of impatience. "Surely."

However, little Artemis was apparently determined to be obtuse – highly unusual – and said with his usual irksome snide condescension, "This is not a shampoo commercial. Please stop flicking your hair."

This was getting nowhere. Holly's chest felt constricted with the effort of keeping hold of the spark, maintaining the presence of that pinprick of light inside her. Her lungs had trouble taking in enough oxygen, and for a moment she felt lightheaded.

"Hurry, or I'll have to go without you," she urged, her face twisted in a grimace. The threat was basically an empty one, given that if she could have opened the time tunnel and escaped Butler and little Artemis before they had time to jump forward and get a hold of her, or injure her in some way, then she could have just as easily taken Artemis and Jayjay with her, and she couldn't have brought herself to leave him behind to save herself anyway. However, she thought he might try a little harder with some incentive, and they might just make it out of here after all.

Twenty-four hours ago, when she was sitting gagged and tied to a baby chair, waiting for her execution, Holly would have believed any attempt to reason with the little mud-monster a waste of breath, and that they now might as well start getting used to the idea of living a life in hiding in the wrong time for the next eight years. But despite the nightmarish three days she'd just had, strangely she was now inclined to be more optimistic.

"Please," said the elder Artemis desperately. "We need to go. It's a matter of life and death."

However, just as when he was twelve, thirteen, and fourteen, ten-year-old Artemis always had to have his way.

"I had a feeling you would be back," he said, paying no heed whatsoever to his elder self's desperate tone, his own voice self-satisfied as usual. "This is where it all began, right on this spot. I reviewed the security tapes, and you simply appeared in this room."

Too tired for much in the way of depth of thought on this, Holly could only vaguely wonder when it was this kid found the time to keep track of absolutely everything from every angle all the time as he continued, wide smirk plastered across his face, "Then you followed me to Africa, so I thought if I saved the creature's life you might end up back here with my lemur. We simply blocked our heat signatures and waited. And here you are."

Hearing this, the Artemis from her time stopped, temporarily distracted. "That's pretty flimsy reasoning," he pointed out, eyebrows slightly raised. "We were obviously after the lemur. Once we had the lemur, why would we return here?"

"I realize the logic was flawed," replied the younger Artemis unconcernedly, "but I had nothing to lose. And, as we can see, a lot to gain."

Holly looked up to really look a the boy standing next to his bodyguard for the first time, to study the expression on his face. _I am in complete control,_ it seemed to say. _I have been in control from the beginning, and now is no different. I have turned everything to my advantage._

There was nothing in his face to contradict his words. And yet, there could be no denying his statement was blatantly untrue. Nothing to lose? And since when, Holly wondered, did Artemis Fowl and his gold-obsessed genius brain consider _five __million euros in diamonds_ nothing? The logic was more than flawed. If what he said was to be believed, he had gambled away one bird he had in his hand for two in the bush without a thought.

But Holly knew her friend too well to believe him capable of throwing away one prize on the promise of such an unlikely speculative venture. There was only one explanation then to account for what he had done.

Back as Holly had sat in that barren cement prison cell, and the cold, twelve-year-old Artemis Fowl had stood before her with his mirrored lenses, calmly informing her how he had injected her with sodium pentothal to force her to reveal her own people's secrets, Artemis Fowl had merely been her enemy, a pitiless, grasping human like any other with no conscience. But even after they had become tentative allies, then friends, and at last quite good friends, the cold human boy who had taken her captive that night, weaving his lies to work the situation to his advantage for the sake of gold, her personal arch nemesis who had so humiliated and tormented her that day so many years ago, had never in her mind ceased to exist. That he was who he appeared to be back then was something she had never questioned, the evil she had seen with her own eyes.

Holly had all along really assumed without even consciously thinking about it that somehow his interaction with the fairies, perhaps starting with the recovery of his mother's sanity and of his father's life, was entirely responsible for changing him from the sinister, greedy individual with no morals she had met into the boy struggling with a conscience, who would say with such a look of bewilderment, _"I honestly don't know. Half of me wants to be a criminal, and the other half wants to be a normal teenager."_ His progress had seemed so smooth and natural, perhaps even an inevitable result of the positive influence of spending so much time among fairies, that they had both seeded and nurtured this good that had been absent from him before.

But here, she had for the first time had a chance to compare the Artemis at age fourteen directly to the ten-year-old version of this time. What had seemed natural before she could now see was odd and jarring, the thought that someone could change so drastically in just four years suddenly seeming beyond all rational possibility. More than anything it was that that had so unsettled her at the Extinctionists' compound, when for the first time she consciously thought about what she had always unconsciously assumed – that Artemis in his younger days had indeed been as depraved and as much a villain as Kronski and the others. But she knew, deep down, if she accepted that she would have to ask herself a question. That question was, if she really looked at the facts before her, how in all logic could she really believe he was exactly what she saw him to be now, that there wasn't still an impenetrable darkness that he was forced to hide to be what they all wanted him to be? True major changes like that had to take years, and the quicker the change the more unstable it tended to be, with a higher probability of a relapse back into the person he was before. How could someone who had known only heartlessness and selfish ambition before grow empathy for others so rapidly?

It was the image they had all had of their human friend, of his coldness. _"I want you all to think back to the first time you met me," _he had said just before the mind-wipe, after the operation at the Spiro Needle._ "Remember that night? If you take away my memories of the People, I might become that person again."_ And so, it was an image Artemis himself had only seemed to confirm, as though that self from just a year before could have been so different as that.

Holly's eyes briefly shifted up to the human standing beside her, his face for the most part composed, but his brow furrowed in thought and concern as he stared back at his past self.

_Lies._ That was the answer, the real truth she had never before been able to see. Over and over again, he had always been lying. To her, to everyone. And she had swallowed all those lies as always.

"_My father for a lemur. How could I not go through with it?"_

"_You healed my mother. Healed her and damned her."_

He had gone from a boy who would sell another living thing to save his parent to a boy who would blackmail a friend to do the same. Now the ten-year-old was standing there, honestly trying to make them think he had intervened on her behalf out of some personal self-interest, with that same cold, disconcerting presence he had had on the day she had first met him. Yes, the Artemis she knew now had changed a great deal in the last few years, and knowing the fairies had certainly changed his opinion on the kind of person he wanted to be, the depths he believed he ought to be willing to sink to. But there had been no drastic change the way she had seen it.

She had been deceived as all the rest were; she had failed to see the reality that, to make his opponents and everyone else believe he had no sliver of decency or kindness, no weakness, was as integral a part to his lies that let him win battle after battle as his other strategies and manipulations. That image of ruthlessness, of invincibility, was simply another necessary step to victory.

As his friend, Holly had begun to think she knew him so well, that she had played such a vital role in changing him from a monster into a sentient being capable of empathy and feeling. Yet here she was, only just now beginning to realize that she hadn't understood anything.

Holly's gaze went back to the younger version of her friend for a moment before she let her head drop to stare at the floor. Perhaps she had not done as much as she had thought. But she had still done something, still had things she could do. Right now she was not particularly impressed with his excuses, and she decided she wasn't going to let him get away with it this time. For one thing, she wasn't much in the mood to sit around listening to little Arty indulge in his favorite pastime of thoroughly unnecessary ego-tripping, even if they'd had the time.

"Artemis," she said, having to strain a little even to speak as she felt another wave of discomfort as the bit of magic connecting her to the future shrank a little more. Again she craned her neck to stare up at him from where she remained bent, a hand pressed to her chest, where her heartbeat fluttered unsteadily. "I know you have a heart," she insisted, managing to sound at once characteristically aggressive and confrontational despite her state. "You're a good person even if you don't know it yet. You sacrificed your diamonds to save my life. What will it take for you to let us go?"

Holly thought she could feel the eyes of the elder Artemis on her as she spoke, but she didn't turn to look.

Young Artemis was silent. To Holly's surprise, he did not instantly wave away or try to counter her assertion with some new, more convincing excuse. Strangely, even though he had flatly ignored the plea of his older self, his brow furrowed and he put the crook of his index finger to his lips, apparently taking her question seriously.

Holly closed her eyes and concentrated on the spark inside her as the ten-year-old thought about what he wanted, all the while she and Artemis stood there in their underwear, the clock ticking away, Opal drawing ever closer, Angeline's life continuing to fade.

Little Artemis finally answered. "The truth," he said.

An ironic request.

"I need to know the absolute truth about all this," he continued. "What kind of creature are _you_? Why does _he_ look so familiar? What makes the lemur special? Everything."

Holly realized vaguely that this was the first time little Artemis had spoken to her directly, rather than refer to her in the third person as _'the creature'_ or _'it.' _However, Holly did not have the strength for any long-winded explanations, so she shot the elder Artemis a You-take-it-from-here glance.

Artemis turned obligingly to his younger self. "Get me a pair of scissors," he commanded.

Little Artemis raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"It will be more efficient to show you first. We are pressed for time, in case you had not noticed." He spoke in clipped, cool tones, and Holly felt Artemis's hand squeeze her shoulder a bit tighter reassuringly.

Little Artemis, curiosity evidently winning out over his desire to continue to pass supercilious comments and be in control of absolutely everything all the time, did not argue.

Strangely, as the younger Artemis turned away from them and went for his desk where he kept his collection of office supplies, Holly thought she saw a flicker of a smile on the tall, lanky teen's lips as his eyes followed his younger self. Perplexed, she pursed her lips slightly. It was unmistakable. That was a smile she had come to know well – that smile that meant everything was going according to plan.

* * *

><p>As young Artemis went to his desk to retrieve the scissors, the Artemis standing next to Holly turned to look down at her, and the grip on her shoulder tightened again for a moment.<p>

"Do you think you can hold out a little longer?" he asked.

"Up to a point," Holly grunted. "But better make it fast."

Artemis nodded once, then lifted his eyes to the small figure standing in front of them.

"Will these do?" said the boy, dangling the scissors carelessly by the handle in his long fingers before offering them to Artemis.

Wordlessly, Artemis removed the arm around Holly's shoulder and took the offered handle, the object's twin sharp blades glinting silver in the evening light of the setting sun.

"Forgive me for not having the luxury to do a more presentable job," said Artemis, while he hacked away at the dark locks of his long, black hair until it was about as short as the younger Artemis's, although all of slightly uneven lengths, some sections cut crookedly or so they split in some places. He combed the rest of it back from his broad forehead the way he always did, though at the moment he only had his long fingers as tools to work with, then stared at the younger Artemis with his piercing mismatched eyes.

Young Artemis's own blue ones narrowed slightly. "...Hm. I had noticed you bear a striking resemblance to those of the Fowl bloodline," he said. "Particularly to my..." he hesitated, expression closed and calculating as ever. "Who are you?"

Artemis's thin lips curled as he eyed his younger self's expression.

"'Particularly to your father,' am I right?" he guessed. "That is a fair observation. I am a Fowl after all."

Little Artemis stared at his older self, an intensity in his eyes that wasn't there before. Perhaps he could somehow sense just how remarkable and astonishing the approaching revelation was.

"You heard what I said about the 'time stream,' didn't you?" Artemis continued, and Holly thought he was being unnecessarily melodramatic for someone who had emphasized being on a tight schedule a moment before. Next time, he should be the one to carry Nº1's magic and be the beacon himself.

Artemis was now smirking broadly, and she could see that old excitement flickering in his eyes, the anticipation of the big reveal. The last time she had seen it was the Extinctionists' banquet during her trial, she realized. It seemed like such a long time ago now.

"My partner and I are what you might call travelers from a time that occurs after this one," he said. "In more generic terms, we are from the future. Eight years into the future."

"I understood what you meant; there is no need to clarify," replied the boy. However, he did not sneer. The ten-year-old stared at his older self for a moment, his gaze almost fascinated now, then nodded once, as though this made total sense to him.

"I see," he said. "So then, if I am not mistaken, that would make _you_..."

"Correct," said Artemis, still smiling and, though his expression was unchanged from what it had been a moment before, Holly thought she detected a distinct aura of 'finally I can talk to someone of intelligence' radiating from his vaguely smug face. Before, when his petitions to his younger self to let them go had gone unacknowledged, Holly had felt for him, but now her sympathy was rapidly dissipating.

Artemis went on with that tone of authority that always forced others to believe whatever he said, his pale face illuminated by the orange glow of the setting sun outside, "I am your future, Artemis Fowl the Second, heir to the Fowl empire."

He dipped his head in a slight bow.

Holly resisted the urge to let out an irritated sigh and roll her eyes.

Young Artemis did not look shocked or astounded at this news, or even openly suspicious, but his attention to his older self now was so rapt thoughts must have been whirring through his head like bullet trains. He merely nodded once again.

Butler it seemed, however, was not so easy to convince. Standing protectively of his charge a little off to the side watching the exchange, the manservant broke from stony silence to say, "From the future, right. Next they'll be telling us the girl's really a little green alien in disguise."

"No," said little Artemis softly, eyes still locked with those of his other self. "It does make sense. After all, we know this creature is capable of hypnotism and invisibility. We have seen it. Why not time travel as well? But that is not all."

The boy closed his eyes a moment, perhaps taking a second to organize his thoughts, or maybe just trying to annoy Holly further. When he opened them again, his gaze remained trained on the older Artemis. "We discovered that the pair of you and your other accomplice had broken into the Bentley and stolen some of the materials there. At the time, I dismissed it as more of your magic, but even so, the inside of our vehicle is protected by a fingerprint scanner and code that only I, Butler, and my immediate family know. When I went back to view the log, it was recorded that it was _I _who had access the compartment, at the time when Butler and I were still in Rathdown Park." He paused. "So," he said softly, "if you intended to keep the truth hidden from me, that was a careless mistake on your part."

"Hardly a mistake," Artemis replied. "It was a risk that we were forced to take. I was, after all, aware that it would be unlikely for you to be able to guess at information we did not want you to have merely from that. I knew you would find an alternative explanation – and so you did."

Little Artemis, shrugged, though Holly thought there was just a touch of irritation about his cool features, and hardly ready to concede the point, but instead of arguing, he continued, "Also, I was able to hear some of what you said while I had you inside the Bentley titanium-locked trunk, and even some after you escaped. Although you were speaking in a language unfamiliar to me, the term 'lemur' was still the same – And so I realized soon after that the lemur must be your goal." His lips curled slightly, ever so pleased with his own intelligence as ever.

"But in addition to that, I also was quite sure I heard my own name. Again, I believed automatically you must be speaking about me, your chief opponent in the game, but I was also struck at the time how, based on the context, the female sounded more as though as though she was speaking _to_ someone, rather than speaking _of_ me. Not to mention, one doesn't ordinarily call an opponent they know so little by his first name only, though it occurred to me that perhaps you were merely underestimating me because of my age. It would certainly not be the first time. Unfortunately, these clues were not enough from which to discern the truth, but I will admit they are consistent with your story."

"Clever," admitted the older Artemis. "So, you are convinced then?"

Young Artemis considered for a moment, resting his chin on his delicate hand as he thought. "Not entirely," he said. "But I am curious to hear the rest of what you have to say."

Holly's knees felt weak and she slipped down a few inches, head bowing a little further. One would think two geniuses could figure out how to move things along a little more quickly.

"Hurry it up, Artemis," she hissed out of the corner of her mouth. "There's not much time left."

Holly felt Artemis's hand around her shoulder again, and he gently pulled her against his leg, giving her something to lean on.

_Seriously, cut it out already, Arty._

Holly's face was flaming as she inconspicuously turned her head so her gaze was as far away from his red boxer shorts as she could get. Though his support was making it easier to stand, she wasn't sure it was worth it, as she could feel her heart burning probably double the energy now.

"We need to go," said Artemis, "so I will have to try make this as abbreviated as possible. I trust you will be able to keep up."

Little Artemis smirked. "I can try."

So Artemis began, and Holly was relieved when, this time, he cut right to the point.

"My friend here is what is called a 'fairy.'" He squeezed Holly's shoulder slightly again. "She is a captain within the Lower Elements Police Force, also known as the LEP, an organization of fairies in charge of maintaining peace. She is a friend of mine who agreed to accompany me on this mission."

Little Artemis was still smirking as his gaze flickered to Holly – probably thinking about how impressive a sight this made: a police captain standing here shivering in a one-piece next to a tall, skinny boy in boxer shorts. Holly had to suppress her sudden desire to maim.

The elder Artemis went on, speaking more quickly now. "Fairies, such as Captain Short here, possess magic which gives them a variety of abilities."

"So she was the one who brought you to this time," observed little Artemis.

"No," said the older Artemis, in full-lecture mode now. "Few fairies have enough magic for time travel. The fairy who sent us here is waiting back in the present – I suppose the future, from your perspective. A warlock named Nº1."

"Hmm," said young Artemis. He didn't comment on the odd name, though he looked thoroughly intrigued. "And so, your mission was to come back and retrieve the lemur. Why?"

"Fairies have found that the brain fluid of different kinds of animals have a variety of uses," Artemis answered. "The lemur – " He shot a glance at Jayjay, who was sitting patiently on his arm, and had just reached up to calmly begin grooming the teen's long black hair. "Or specifically, the silky sifaka, a creature I remembered that I myself had made extinct, possesses brain fluid that acts as the sole cure for a deadly disease that sprung up among the fairy people. The disease was thought to have been eliminated. But then..." His voice was suddenly quieter. "Mother contracted the disease."

Young Artemis's eyes widened by a fraction, and what little color there was seemed to drain from his face. "Mother?" he whispered, and for the first time, he really looked like a ten-year-old boy, the conniving, calculating look for once completely slipping from his features.

"That's right," replied Artemis. "That is why we are here. To rescue the lemur – "

"Jayjay," Holly inserted.

"Yes, 'Jayjay,' as we call him," Artemis amended, then continued. "The fairies were also concerned that my mother may not be the only case. Hence, why they agreed to such a drastic measure as time travel to allow us a chance to gain the cure for the disease."

"I see," said little Artemis. His voice was quiet, more subdued now. He was silent awhile, thinking. His face was perfectly smooth, but Holly imagined there was probably a battle going on behind those blue eyes. A battle of whether to refuse to be so naïve as to believe such a fantastical tale and actually give these strangers what they wanted before they had proven absolutely the truth of what they said, or to allow himself to simply take the bizarre story at face value, to let them go in order to do his part to help them to save his mother.

"I see," he said again at last. Then, hesitantly, as though still struggling with himself, he said, "I... genuinely appreciate the fact that you have told me all this. And I..." He trailed off, still hesitant, but then his pale face smoothed and he had composed himself once more. "And I certainly won't risk Mother's life in the future. So you should go."

He gestured for Butler to stand down, then shook his head slightly. "Though I must admit, this all seems too extraordinary to be real. It is hardly scientific – I am still at the moment open to the possibility that this is a strange dream concocted by my subconscious as the result of a bit of some poorly digested meal."

"There is one more thing," said Artemis.

Holly looked up, and so did little Artemis. Holly wanted to yell, 'No, no more things, _please_.' She couldn't keep Nº1's spark from going out much longer, plus she didn't know how many more speeches she could take. If there was one thing she found more tiresome than one of Artemis Fowl's lectures, it was _two_ Artemis Fowls lecturing each other back and forth. In her opinion, she and Artemis ought to get out while they still could before little Artemis's brief spell of generosity passed and he changed his mind.

She looked up at the older Artemis, intent on communicating this, and saw him staring into the eyes of his younger self, the boy he used to be. "Artemis Fowl," he said, actually speaking the boy's name for the first time. Holly suspected he must feel as weird about it as it was for them hearing it.

And, before she could get out her complaint, he said matter-of-factly, "When our party returns to the future in just a moment, if you are willing, I would like to request that you accompany us."

* * *

><p>AN: Hmm, couldn't decide quite how I should combine the chapters this time around. I originally meant to leave this one on it's own, then combine the next two, but then I thought I would put the next one with this one instead so that more would happen here, but as I looked further ahead I realized that arrangement probably wouldn't work as well later on, so in the end I left it on it's own after all. XD! But this one turned out pretty long on it's own anyway.

But anyway, yeah, you probably know now why Eoin Colfer decided to skip this scene in the book. X3 This was so hard to write to include all the information that little Artemis later seems to have without becoming a little tedious... But I did my best, because I really wanted the whole scene in there to try to imagine how it could have gone. And I thought for this version of the story, since you already know what's going to happen, a chronological approach would work better than the clever way it was done in the original TTP.

On a random note, the Little-Artemis/Elder-Artemis thing officially has just about killed me. I really wished I could just make Holly refer to the older Artemis as 'her Artemis' because that would have been easier, but that would have been stealing from Book of the Ages, lol. (If you haven't read that fanfiction, go read it now, it's ridiculously awesome)

Gasp! Wow, thank you so, so much for all your wonderful reviews last chapter, I loved them. Thank you all for reading this story so far, and please leave a review to tell me what you thought or, again, just to tell me you read it. (: The end is in sight now – only about five chapters left to go, depending on how the content gets arranged. Now that you've come this far, I hope you'll stick it out with me until then!

Well, until next time. (;

Posted 4/28/12


	32. Seeds of Mistrust

This is a bit of a T-rated chapter for the first section... Only a little, though. (; I'll mention at the end what I mean by that in case it's not as obvious as it feels like to me.

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><p>Disclaimer: The characters, much of the dialogue, and sadly, even the plot are not mine; they all belong to Eoin Colfer.<p>

Pages: (jump forward to) 340 – 342, (jump back to) 317 – 320

Chapter 31: Seeds of Mistrust

" – accompany – " Holly began.

" – you?" finished young Artemis, narrow blue eyes slightly wider than usual.

Holly and young Artemis's reactions to the older Artemis's pronouncement were strangely similar.

"Absolutely not," said Butler.

"But Artemis – " said Holly, forcing herself to forget her embarrassment enough to turn back to her partner, craning her neck to look up into his face.

"Take me with you?" repeated little Artemis, mouth tight with suspicion. "What purpose would that serve?"

The older Artemis shrugged slightly. "When we return, there will be something that we have to take care of, and my plan for dealing with it requires you."

Closing his eyes, he breathed deeply, remaining silent a moment. No one interrupted his thoughts, simply waiting for what he would say. At last his eyes slid open again, and he began calmly, "From the beginning, I noticed many aberrations on this trip, things that did not fit together. For instance, I believed for some time that I must have been the one to have infected mother, as I had been the only one to have used magic on her in recent times."

Artemis's gaze flickered down to Holly for a second, then returned to little Artemis and Butler.

"However, if that were the case, I found many slight incongruities, lingering questions for which I could not discern answers. For instance, if I really carried the disease, why was I myself not ill, nor Holly, who had used her magic on me multiple times in the past, nor Butler who has been healed with magic even more often than I? And is it a coincidence that it was _my _mother to fall ill among so many other people who have had magic used on them in the past year? I think not."

Holly felt a tingle at the base of her neck.

"What are you saying, Artemis?" she asked, though she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to hear the answer.

Artemis's eyes were steely with certainty and determination. "I am saying that someone deliberately caused Mother's illness, with the express intent that we would travel back in time to rescue this lemur – Jayjay – and take him back with us to the present."

Holly was silent for half a second. "Wait a minute, hold on," she said suddenly. "I'm sorry, Artemis, but that makes no sense. Who would be in the position to do something like that, or even have a reason in the first place?"

Artemis's face was deadly serious. "Have you forgotten who else wanted Jayjay?"

At these words, Holly's blood froze, despite the beams of warm summer sunlight filtering in through the window. "But that's impossible," she said, with a definite note of forcefulness now. The horror of the thought was enough to shove momentarily from her mind thoughts about the discomfort of holding onto Nº1's spark. Or perhaps the worst of the pain of it had simply receded for the time being, though she was too preoccupied to notice.

"What's impossible?" little Artemis asked impatiently, reminding Holly just a bit of his future self when they had been back in Angeline's room, when she and Foaly had realized what the disease must be.

Perhaps Artemis had a bit of sympathy for his younger self because, unlike his fairy friends, he turned his eyes to the boy and answered immediately. "After I fell into the flame pit at the Extinctionists' compound," he said, "I discovered there was another fairy who desired the silky sifaka lemur, for the purpose of bringing her powers to a whole new level. She is a pixie named Opal Koboi, a genius and megalomaniac that Captain Short and I have had some dealings with before in the past – future, in your case."

Little Artemis was quiet, thinking. "I see," he said. "So that's it. I understand."

Holly was glad someone did, because she sure didn't. She found her eyes automatically going to Artemis for further explanation, but before she could open her mouth to ask he answered he question.

"In other words," he said grimly, "when we return to the future, the Opal from this time will already be there waiting for us."

The cold in Holly's veins seemed to only solidify further, choking the beating of her heart and stopping her lungs from taking in enough oxygen. The fairy who had murdered Julius Root and very nearly destroyed half of Haven – coming to their time?

"Opal," Artemis continued, "will, as soon as we leave, enter the stream after us through the hole we leave behind, pursue us to the future, then drop out of the stream before we do, which will give her time to set up the scheme of infecting Mother or else feigning the effects of the disease in order to instigate our return to the past. She went to the future because of us; we came back here because of her. It's a loop – A 'time paradox.'"

"Ah, okay," said Holly, not entirely sure she got all of it, but understanding enough to know that it meant bad news for them. Her tone gained more authority as she took the conversation back into an area she was comfortable with: taking action. "Then we have to stop her," she said. "If we leave right now, the hole may have closed before she can get here. Or we can have Butler stand here as a guard."

Artemis shook his head. "None of that will work. This has already happened, so we cannot prevent it. That's the nature of the paradox. We will have to deal with Opal in our own time."

Holly pursed her lips. She wanted to argue, but, though she hated to admit it, the insanity was actually starting to make sense to her, and it seemed like Artemis could very well be right. So instead, Holly deflated slightly and groaned. "Great," she muttered. "So much for finally getting a chance to relax."

Artemis smiled slightly. "Not just yet, friend."

"You couldn't have mentioned this sooner by any chance," she said, annoyed. "Is there really anything we can do if she's already set up camp and is just sitting in your manor waiting for us? It sounds to me like a couple of mice going back to the den only to find a big snake already there waiting for them."

"I didn't want to worry you," he said, smile still tugging at his lips. "But rest assured, at the very least this mouse in particular does have a plan."

When he turned his head back to little Artemis, his expression was sober again. "And that is where you come in. I will need you to distract Opal, put her off her guard while I move to take care of her personally. Will you agree to come?"

"Yes," said the younger Artemis, without hesitation. "Of course."

"Hold on a minute," said Butler again, stepping forward. He did not look happy. It was all Holly could do to keep from shrinking back a step.

"However," young Artemis continued, addressing his future self without looking at his bodyguard, "I have a request."

His blue eyes were cold and certain, and Holly had the distinct sense that, whatever he was about to say, it would be better for them not to refuse, the way one didn't refuse the request of a well-known local mob boss. But, she reminded herself, that intimidation was just part of his projected persona. Still, even if he wasn't as evil as she had thought, that didn't mean they didn't still need to be careful.

"You have told me much concerning these secrets about fairies," he said, "and I have a sneaking suspicion that this magic you told me about extends to memory manipulation, is that correct? After all, that is the only conceivable way that it would be possible for these creatures' existence to be kept such a secret all this time. So, I merely ask that you leave my mind intact when I am sent back to this time. It is my mind and my memories which make up who I am, so I would prefer no one tamper with them. After all, I have no doubt these memories will greatly contribute to who I become."

Artemis didn't blink. "Very well," he said. "I agree to those terms."

"Wha – " spluttered Holly, whirling to stare up at her friend as though he was out of his mind, then regretting it as she put a hand back to her chest, feeling the pressure of the fading spark return with a vengeance. "Artemis, you can't be serious," she blurted, though her tone was strained. "You know what he is."

"Yes, thank you for that," he said, smiling a little. "But we do require his assistance for the plan." His eyes were solemn as they met hers, the mismatched colors mirrored back at her own as ever. "Just trust me."

Holly huffed slightly and looked away. "I really shouldn't." However, she found herself remembering again the moral relapse the boy had had when his memories had been erased before. And this time, he had already started to change even in just these few days, going from kidnapping her to going out of his way to save her. Strangely, apparently he wasn't a difficult person to influence for the good, but it was such a delicate thing, and only too easily destroyed. Holly had the briefest thought that maybe leaving these new memories where they were was for the best after all.

As she was thinking, Holly's eyes fell on the ten-year-old Artemis, who was silently watching her. His lips were slightly upturned at the corners and his eyes glittered. From the expression on his face, he might have been the younger in a pair of siblings who had just won an argument, and gotten the parent to ground the older one to boot.

…No, she thought, slash that. He was still Artemis Fowl. Whatever Artemis age fourteen thought, that promise was way too rash in the extreme. They would all live to regret this.

Galled by the look, Holly ignored the boy and turned back to the Artemis from her time.

"In this plan, Artemis," she said, "if you're right about this, what should I do? Maybe you'd better leave Opal to me. The physical isn't exactly your area of expertise, in case you've forgotten."

"No," said Artemis decisively, shaking his head. "It must be me. First of all, Opal will likely have hijacked the Fowl security system. Though there is no camera in my personal study, she will no doubt monitor us through the cameras placed elsewhere if we leave it, and I am the only one who knows how to navigate the manor without being picked up on surveillance."

Butler frowned very distinctly at this. He probably didn't much appreciate hearing someone say there was a hole in his security, even if it came from a future version of his master.

"Secondly, Opal is only expecting one Artemis Fowl to emerge from the time stream. If she believes you and I are both accounted for, she will let her guard down – That is essential to the plan. Opal's overconfidence is her downfall."

"And so, you want me to..." Holly prompted.

"Remain behind in the study to inform Foaly and Nº1 of my theory. Leave the rest to us."

Holly nodded, but inwardly she realized she felt a bit shut out.

Little Artemis was looking at her again. "So, you're a fairy," he commented. "And you have actual magic."

"That's what we said," replied Holly.

"So it was magic you used to heal him – " he gestured at his elder self – "at Rathdown Park after he was nearly dismembered by the troglodytes gorilla." His face was thoughtful. "We wondered about that." A moment later, his small, thin lips curled again in that way that never failed to get under her skin.

"And you're a captain of some type of fairy police force," he added in a falsely innocent tone. "You seem very, ah, _relaxed_ for someone of that level of responsibility."

Holly raised an eyebrow and cocked her head, for a second not sure what he was getting at. Then she made the connection to his earlier comment about Rathdown Park, and the color rose in her face until it was an ugly shade of puce. Oh, he was so dead.

Butler edged closer until he half blocking Holly's view of the boy, flexing threateningly as he glared down at the new diminutive threat to his principle. The elder Artemis meanwhile rubbed his temples and said, "Holly... I understand how you feel, but I hope you will keep in mind that if you cause a paradox here, it will likely mean the end of the universe as we know it. But even if not, I would like to point out I would in fact still like to exist beyond ten years of age."

"Nothing permanent then," said Holly very calmly as she imagined all the most satisfying methods of torture she could think of. "Nothing that can't be fixed."

"How's Nº1's spark?" Artemis asked to distract her. "Can we still enter the stream?"

"Yes," said Holly, not distracted, despite the mounting pressure in her chest, and for some reason not pacified by the way the boy was continuing to smirk at her from around where he stood safely behind his bodyguard. "Well?" she demanded of the ten-year-old, suddenly aggressive. "If you're coming, off with your clothes. Unless you want to be wearing that suit for the rest of your life."

Young Artemis's smile flickered, and for a moment he looked disconcerted. Then his composure was back, but he still eyed her suspiciously, similar to the way one might survey a suspected child molester.

"I would remind you, even if my intellect surpasses that of most adults by far, I am still physically ten years old right now," he said as he went over to the wardrobe and began carefully removing his suit jacket and unbuttoning his white shirt.

Holly was doubled over again, keeping Nº1's spark up until the very last moment, both hands clutched over her heart. Yet still her eyes remained fixed on a point between the small shoulder blades.

"Just close your eyes and count to ten," advised Artemis the elder, noticing her expression. "It is a simple exercise, but surprisingly effective. You don't want to be in the state when you enter the stream. You won't make it."

"I think I really just need to hit something good and hard," muttered Holly, narrowed eyes still boring a hole into the obnoxious ten-year-old. "Maybe you should volunteer. Seeing as how you're technically the one grinding my last nerve."

Artemis sighed, though he held Jayjay a little closer to his chest as though for protection. "It's at times like this I miss having Mulch Diggums around. I do prefer when he takes the brunt of these things."

Despite herself, Holly had to bite her lip to keep from grinning.

Little Artemis finished hanging up his suit and turned back to the group. He looked a lot less dignified standing in a pair of dark blue boxer shorts with vertical gray pinstripes, though admittedly they were better than the elder Artemis's red ones.

Holly held out a hand, palm up. "Come here," she said.

Again little Artemis looked at her dubiously, and approached with caution.

As soon as he came within range, Holly seized the boy's wrist, squeezing tighter than she probably needed to, at which young Artemis again looked decidedly disturbed.

"We need skin-to-skin contact," she explained so he would stop looking at her like that, though she was positive he was just doing it to annoy her. "Suck it up."

"Now wait just a minute."

Butler, it seemed, though he had stayed quiet for some time, was not yet convinced. "I can't allow this," he said sternly. "Artemis, it's my job to make sure you're safe. Your parents charged me to take care of you; I don't know about this time-travel business, but if you go wherever it is without any protection and don't make it back – "

Young Artemis turned to stare back at his bodyguard, looking grave.

"It's my mother, Butler," he said softly. "I must save her."

His voice rose a little and turned brisk as he added, "Now I charge you to stay by her side until I return. Anyway," he added smugly, "how could they hope to succeed without me?"

"How indeed," was Holly's sarcastic input. Then, at long last, she closed her eyes and opened herself up to Nº1's magic.

The relief of no longer having to keep track of that tiny, waning bit of power while also keeping the stream closed was immediate. She drew in a deep breath of air and then let it out a again, letting the ease wash over her. It didn't last long however as she felt something like a tug from a long way off, connecting with the spark of the demon magic lying deep in her chest.

"Oh, and Butler," the older Artemis called. "You should probably go to Mother immediately once we are gone. I guarantee you will not want to be here when Opal shows up."

Holly was busy watching young Artemis. He paled as the portal to the time stream opened wide before them, the vaguely trapezoidal, dark purple shape seeming to pulse like a fluctuating world of poisonous mist. The sound of a billowing gale was in their ears and sparks of crimson electricity crackled in the depths of the void, until it rushed forward and swallowed them whole.

Just before their bodies were dismantled into little more than strings of data, young Artemis, not looking quite so cocky as before, met Holly's eye for a split second. She suddenly grinned back at him – like a cat grins at a goldfish.

"Chin up, Mud Boy," she said with a bit of a wink. "And watch out for quantum zombies."

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><p>The trip through the flowing insubstantial river of the time stream was, if possible, even harder than the last time.<p>

At first Holly felt all right. Good even, finally safe for the first time in three days of being drugged, kidnapped, and nearly killed several times over, even if it was just for a little while. They had saved Jayjay and so completed their mission. Artemis's mother would be saved and no one else would have to fear that they or their loved ones would fall prey to the vicious fairy plague.

However, as the immediate sense of physical danger eased, the relief she had unwittingly been enjoying from other sources of stress crept back to the forefront of her consciousness, and suddenly a multitude of conflicting emotions were pulling and tearing at her being.

Irritation over the deceit Artemis had used to manipulate her suddenly flared to life and for a moment it seized hold of her again. This time Holly's resolution on what to do about it came much more swiftly, and she felt immediately better as she conjured a mental image of herself, once the mission was over and everyone was for certain all right, giving Artemis a good, much-deserved sock in the jaw. Julius, she thought, would understand just this bit of immaturity from his officer; in fact, he would probably be cheering her on.

However, beneath the anger she also felt a twisting pain and regret digging into her chest like claws. The humiliation of what she had done in that silly unguarded moment still burned with an unbelievable intensity. She felt vulgar, degraded, as though she had wallowed in mud until the it had been caked on her face and arms, clinging to her legs torso. And in a certain sense, that was exactly what she had done.

However, even beyond those feelings, it was the lingering sense of betrayal that continued to hang in her mind most of all. The betrayal was not so clean-cut a pain as the others. Splinters of different emotions and threads of hurt of which she could not quite pinpoint the source seemed scattered inside her, so many different shards of pain that had to be found and dug out piece by piece, if they ever were all found at all. It was a messy wound, and even if she doubted it could ever be nearly as painful as having one's heart actually broken, it was the kind of injury she couldn't know would ever heal properly, and if it did, it would still leave an ugly scar of suspicion and mistrust.

First and foremost, it was not what Artemis had actually done exactly that bothered her. She understood that it had all been for his mother and she accepted that. But he had been so utterly convinced that he had no other choice than to lie to her. If it had absolutely had to happen to save Angeline, that was one thing, but had it? He had had a choice: he could have trusted her enough to come with him without his resorting to such dirty tactics, but he didn't.

Holly did not think she would ever forget this feeling, of going along so naïvely for so long, honestly believing that they were both being completely open about information. She had trusted him, despite her better judgment, almost without even thinking about it, and so, when it had finally come, the ugly truth had hit her with the force of a ten-ton truck. She knew now: they were allies, friends, but that was not enough for him to consider her a real partner, an equal. He would deceive her in order to move her on his chess board just as soon as he would any of their enemies.

Perhaps she should just accept that, and she would feel better. However, at the moment the injury was still too fresh for that. She was helpless to do anything but stew over the events, how Artemis had misjudged her, how he had failed to trust her to make her own decision.

Yet at the same time Holly could feel a kind of cold logic creeping in and permeating all these wounded, angry thoughts. A nagging voice whispered incessantly to remind her how dead-set against the plan she'd been at the start. A memory gnawed at the back of her head, a memory of the underlying terror she had felt at the idea of doing something so outlandish and dangerous as going back to change history. Her own words drifted forward.

"_We cannot interfere, Artemis," _she had said. _"Humans must be allowed to live their lives."_

Again it flashed through her thoughts of just how well Artemis knew the people around him. He always seemed to know what they were thinking, to the point where he could predict what what they would and wouldn't do, and know exactly what was needed to motivate them. _She_ was one of those individuals he knew so well, with thoughts that could not be hidden.

So was it possible that, in that moment, Artemis had known her better than she had known herself? Had his intellect been right in telling him that manipulating her was really the only way to to take away her uncertainty and grant her the strength she needed to be able to agree to his audacious scheme? Even now, Artemis had never withdrawn his assertion, his belief that she would not have come willingly if he had not coerced her. Artemis had not said, _"I made a mistake. I should have trusted you, Holly_." He had said, _"I did what I had to do. And I would do it again."_

A hard knot formed in her chest then, a thorn she knew would probably forever hold a place there. This view on the events was no better than the first. Because, no matter which it was, it still amounted to the same thing: No matter how she looked at it, she knew without a doubt that either Artemis had failed her, or she had failed Artemis. The seeds of mistrust between them were sown, the beginnings of weeds that would grow until at last they stunted and choked out the growth of their friendship.

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><p>All these thoughts soon petered out however, the weight of the stream around her making it hard for thoughts of any kind. Like a drug, the thoughts and emotions within the flow around them seemed to drag her mind down until her thoughts felt slow and muddled, and continuing to push through the stream felt like she was up to her neck slogging her way through a bog, her lungs unable to take in enough air, her feet heavy with the thick mud that stayed suckered to them with each step.<p>

Foreign thoughts from the eyes of a thousand other consciences and nature herself crowded their way into her head, so overwhelming that they nearly crowded out everything else. It would be easy to lose herself in those other thoughts, to forget all about Holly Short, first female Recon officer, top of the class in the academy in flight instruction. To forget about the fairy who had broken down and cried bitterly by her mother's bedside as nurses came in to pull the sheet up over the vacant face, and again when she had seen her commanding officer murdered right before her eyes. To forget the young elfin officer who cracked smart jokes at every opportunity, but was absolutely focused and serious when it came to carrying out her obligations, who had such a mind of her own, often going against orders, and risking her own life and career for the sake of others' lives.

For a moment, it was as though she could see from a perspective outside herself of all who she was. As a disinterested third party, looking on the worries of that other life with emotional impunity, she could see directly the insignificance of that existence in the great scheme of things. From afar the image of the jungle dwelling of that life came to her, its walls now so overrun by dark green vines and expansive leaves that blocked out the sunlight. The mere memory of any occupation of that place was already faded and dim, so far in a distant past that it did not seem to matter very much. If that fairy disappeared from that world, she could exist here instead, peacefully drifting along for all eternity. What was to stop her, when that other world had already passed her by anyway?

All these thoughts tried to worm their way into her mind and latch onto her consciousness like parasites. However, Holly continued to hold desperately onto her own spark of determination, of resolve to make it back to where she belonged. Her very atoms seemed to want to pull apart from each other like magnets of the same charge, and in her sluggish, dreamlike state, she felt began to feel a certainty that in giving in and allowing herself to be absorbed into the stream this dark place would be transformed, that it would shine with a divine light, and the confusion of the thoughts and feelings that now oppressed her would reveal themselves as joyful spirits that lived in the stream. Spirits that, if she gave in, would would welcome her with warmth and smiles, drawing her into them until all the anxieties of her former life were drained away, replaced only by an all-encompassing sense of belonging and eternity.

However, as they drew closer to their destination on the other end, Holly noticed the feeling of Nº1's presence in the stream with them and she felt sudden strength surge through her. The sleepy lethargy in her mind receded and she felt the tug of the little demon's magic guiding them through, as though she was tethered to a crimson cord of magic, and all the others were tethered to her. As Holly became more aware again, she noticed dark shapes like strange little creatures moving at the corner of her vision. However, she tried to ignore them and keep her focus on continuing to exist, on the thread of Nº1's magic dragging them ever forward.

As she recovered the energy to focus on things outside just keeping her being from being sucked out into the vast abyss of the stream outside the pathway, she also became aware of the emotions of the others around her, of Jayjay and the two Artemises. Jayjay was remarkably the most composed of any of them, moving calmly through the stream like he did it everyday, but the older Artemis seemed to be having it even rougher than Holly. From what she had heard, every time an individual moved through the stream, that being's 'data' or the particles that composed their essence became more disconnected, making it easier to fall apart or be reassembled on the other side with things missing. However, because the time stream was in part a magical construct, it was safer for a fairy than a human to travel in, so, although she and Artemis had both been in the stream the same number of times, it was obvious that he was suffering a great deal more. If he allowed his concentration to waiver even for a moment, he would be completely broken down and lost in the stream forever.

It was an impressive effort. Holly could almost feel his will and determination as a physical force as he tore ahead through the flow.

His younger self, meanwhile, who had never been in a dimensional tunnel before and so not had his particle structure compromised, was having a much easier time of things. He was busying himself near as Holly could tell by taking advantage of the sort of 'mind syncing' that took place in the stream, in order to pick through the older Artemis's brain for any new bits of fairy-related knowledge.

In addition, as his older self continued to fight the barrage of emotion that bore down on him, battling for his very existence, the younger Artemis would occasionally pester him with little snide remarks, like some kind of pesky kid brother. Holly could sense vaguely Artemis's irritation.

_If we all make it out,_ she thought as she turned her mind back to following the path left for them by the little demon, _I really hope he learns something from this._

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><p>They all landed in a heap on the floor of Artemis's study.<p>

Nº1, showing absolutely no sensitivity whatsoever in light of the ordeal they had just undergone, welcomed them back by saying in a tremulous, spooky voice, "See any zombies?"

In this newly acquired penchant for dropping witty comments at the most inappropriate times, Holly wondered vaguely whether the little demon had been spending time with Mulch Diggums.

Artemis was, amazingly, the first to recover of any of them. Though her mind was still somewhat clouded by the stream, Holly sensed him climb to his feet beside her, setting Jayjay down and striding over to the wardrobe to get some clothes. She could see immediately he was back to his usual height and hairstyle.

"Thank the gods," said Foaly's voice from the TV screens in the study, breathing a huge sigh of relief, a more welcome first response than Nº1's had been. "That was the longest ten seconds of my life. Did you get the lemur?"

Jayjay hopped out from behind Holly to give Foaly a friendly lick, but got a spark on his tongue for his trouble. He darted back, giving the centaur a reproachful look.

"One lemur," he noted. "No female?"

Holly came out of her daze, and directed her eyes up to the screen. "No," she said. "No female. You'll have to clone him." But that was what they had been expecting anyway, so she didn't consider that the most pressing issue at the moment.

Artemis was of course already long gone and on his way to the command center on the lower level, and Foaly's gaze fell on young Artemis, his pale, exposed torso and thin limbs shivering, still under the effects of the journey through the tunnel.

"I see we have an – " Foaly began, but Holly cut him off.

"Let's talk about that later," she said quickly. When it came to curiosity and having his questions answered, Foaly was almost as bad as Artemis and they didn't have time to waste. "For now we have work to do."

"I'm guessing, from the look of things, that Artemis has a plan of some sort," said Foaly, eyebrows raised. "Is that going to be a problem for us?"

Holly was genuinely surprised by the question. She kept forgetting that the People had no reason to believe that all of Artemis's plans would be for the good of everyone.

"Only if we try to stop it," Holly replied.

Meanwhile, the younger Artemis was looking better by now. He picked up Jayjay and stroked the animal gently, making soothing noises.

Though she was mostly recovered, Holly still felt a bit jittery from the time stream trip, and it took her a moment to remember the most important thing, at least as far as she was concerned. Holly forced herself to her feet and half staggered over to the wardrobe, door still left ajar from when the older Artemis had used it a few minutes ago.

She straightened up, then stared into the mirror on the door. A deep sigh of relief escaped her as she was greeted by the familiar face, the high angular cheekbones, the tiny scars evidencing her time with the LEP scattered here and there all over on her exposed skin, the harder, slightly stockier build that came with better physical training.

Holly had the momentary urge to throw up her arms and exclaim, "I'm cured!" However, she didn't know how she would explain herself afterward, and as being called 'crazy' after having just returned to sanity did not particularly appeal to her, she settled for turning and putting on her best cocky smile. Captain Short was back – Now all she needed was her gear and she would be complete.

Young Artemis appeared at her elbow a second later. "You look different," he commented curiously. "So did my other self."

"Those were side effects of the time stream," said Holly smugly, repeating the comment Artemis had made when they had first arrived in the past. "Accelerated aging for him. I guess... de-aging for me."

"I see," said young Artemis, probably not fooled concerning which part was his older self's analysis and what was her addition. "That would explain a great deal."

Holly somehow knew exactly what he was getting at with this remark, perhaps because of the snide tone with which he said it. She wondered if he actually wanted to get hit.

Little Artemis continued on unconcernedly without giving her a chance to reply. "Though in that case my older self appears too young now, if this is really eight years into the future."

Holly decided to ignore the earlier comment and had to concede, if just to herself, that the boy was sharp as always. So this really was Artemis Fowl.

"Long story," she said tersely.

"You can tell me about it later, then," he said as he looked through the wardrobe for clothing that would fit.

Holly wasn't about to make any promises. She turned back to Foaly and asked, "What about my suit?"

"I imagine that our enemy would have already procured your equipment," said young Artemis before Foaly could open his mouth. "That is what I would do."

Holly frowned slightly. He was right, but didn't that mean she was going to be the only one still sitting around under-dressed?

The boy found a suit and pulled it out. "Time to see Mother," he commented. "How much fluid should I administer?"

Foaly was the one to answer this question. "It's powerful stuff," he warned. "Two CC's. No more." He told little Artemis about the syringe gun in Holly's medi-kit, which Artemis had not locked up with Holly's other equipment as she had been in the midst of using it to examine Mrs. Fowl.

Artemis reached down and Jayjay promptly climbed up the offered arm, settling onto the boy's shoulders, before Artemis went over to the bedside table to retrieve the medi-kit. "Very well," he said, slipping the kit into his suit pocket. "I shall go in alone. I do hope Mother recognizes me."

He said it lightly, but Holly could detect the real apprehension behind the boy's words. And strangely, despite all the things the little mini-monster had put them through, she found herself wanting to say something to cheer him up a little.

"So do I," Holly said, straight-faced as she closed the wardrobe. "Or she may object to lemur brain juice being injected into her by a total stranger."

Little Artemis, for the first time since this whole ordeal began, gave her the ghost of a genuine smile.

"Quite the attitude you have," he said dryly. "Take care of things here while I'm gone, would you fairy?"

"Attitude, is it? You're the last one I want to hear that from, Mud Boy," said Holly. She added warningly, "And don't order me around." Yes, nothing like a bit of verbal sparring to bolster his confidence and settle his nerves a bit – He hadn't changed.

The boy was smug. He said airily, "I suppose I'll just have to give it a few years then."

With that, he was gone with the lemur perched atop his shoulder, closing the door behind him.

There was a moment of silence.

"Hasn't changed much, has he?" Foaly commented.

Holly growled and ground her teeth in response. "Evidently not, Foaly. Evidently not."

* * *

><p>AN: So, here it is. Another painful chapter... after this, I think I should make a resolution never to write internal monologues again. (They always seem like a good idea when I'm first writing them, but by the time it comes time to post... Well.)

But anyway, so, we're getting very close now. (: There are either going to be three or four chapters left, depending on whether I decide to combine the last two chapters into one. I really want to finish everything before the last book comes out; I won't force it if they aren't ready, but I'm going to try to work out a rough schedule anyway to try to shoot for, which I'll probably put up in my bio if I get around to it. Though if some of you are really excited about getting to the next part, I might try to work faster than that. (; (But if you like this slower pace, we can stick to that too.)

Oh, and before I forget, what I mentioned about the rating at the top had to do with the 'child molester' thing. X3 Sorry, I know, but I couldn't help it because it seemed so just like little Artemis to stick it to people with the worst kind of insults just so he can look smart. :p

So, in other news, I've now officially had the privilege of being a beta for the first time! :D I worked on chapter 12 of Holiday Boredom's _Resurrecting Annie_, which a lot of you probably already know about. The writing is superb, the characters are deep and in-character, and there are lots of clever canonical twists on canon, so if you like that sort of thing, definitely go check it out! (; (But yeah, I should probably warn you that, unlike this story, there's a lot of content meant for older teen audiences, including language, violence, alcohol, and sexual content, though no actual sex. And the drama is really built up in a powerful way, to the point of being so intense some of it is almost hard to stomach – which can either be a bad thing or a good thing depending on how you look at it, eheh.) If you do wander over there, be sure to leave a review! (;

Anyway, thank you so much for reading and for your wonderful reviews last chapter! Please leave a comment and tell me what you thought this time, and I'll see you next chapter. (;

Posted 5/16/12 (My sister had her one AP test for the year today :O!)


	33. Gross, Vile, and Fowl

Disclaimer: The characters, much of the dialogue, and sadly, even the plot are not mine; they all belong to Eoin Colfer.

Pages: 326 – 330, 334 – 338, 347 – 349

Chapter 32: Gross, Vile, and Fowl

Young Artemis's mention of 'our enemy' earlier was not lost on the centaur and demon warlock and, after both Artemis Fowls were gone, Holly did the best she could to explain Artemis's theory about Opal and the resulting paradox.

Afterward, Nº1 and Foaly just stared at her like she had a screw loose.

"That's it?" said Nº1 in a mock-unimpressed voice. "You're not forgetting some crucial detail? Like the part that makes sense?"

"The whole thing is ridiculous," snorted the centaur incredulously. "Come on, fairies. We've done our part. Time to head belowground."

These two obviously hadn't gone through the last thee days that she had, Holly thought. Bad luck of the most outlandish and absurd kind had seemed to follow them wherever they went, like a mischievous, vengeful goddess of luck. If there was any sense of fairness in the world, surely she had to be coming about due for a windfall before long.

"Soon," said Holly placatingly. "Let's just give Artemis five minutes to check it out. All we need to do is be alert."

Foaly sighed in defeat. "Well, at least let me raise the shuttle," he said. "The troops are holding at Tara, waiting for a callback."

Holly agreed, wondering if Nº1 had had to work very hard to convince his collection of bodyguards to leave him alone inside the manor. Probably not, though; the powerful little demon warlock generally got his way no matter how outrageous the request. Something to do with his tendency to break everything in his vicinity or set objects afire by accident when things weren't going his way.

As Foaly went to work to make the call, Holly turned her attention to Nº1 to tell him to get ready with his magic, just in case. She felt anxious, but it was a different sort of anxiousness from what had plagued her almost constantly while they were stuck in the past. She felt capable and in control again, and she had so many friends here to rely on. Even better, she'd managed to get her hands on a Neutrino even though all her gear was with Opal, thanks to Nº1 and his magic tricks.

In response to Holly's suggestion, the little demon put up his hands, a glow of red magic sparking around them and casting Holly in crimson. "No problem, Holly," he said. "I'm ready for anything."

Unfortunately, the two fairies' brimming confidence didn't do a thing to prevent the next misfortune to befall them.

If a goddess of fortune really does exist out there somewhere, Holly later thought, that woman must really have it in for me.

* * *

><p>When Butler threw open the door and Holly's eyes fell on him standing in the entryway, her first reaction was to let out a small breath of relief and smile. It was good to be back in a time where Butler was on their side. Then she noticed the gun.<p>

The next moment the manservant was loping into the room with all the speed and unstoppable power of a African lion. Before Holly could so much at get her hand down to her weapon she had for barely five minutes, Butler had torn off the entire holster and thrown it roughly aside. Behind him Butler hauled a metal barrel mounted on a trolley. Holly couldn't explain it, but as soon as her eyes fell on that barrel, the elaborate runes running like snakes over its surface, she felt a cold dread in the pit of her stomach.

Nº1 only managed to get off one burst of magic at the manservant before Butler hurled the trolley at them with all the force he could muster.

With no time to react, Holly and Nº1 could do little more than stand there and get run down by the ominous steel object charging toward them. However, it was the thick, pearlescent substances that spilled over the sides and onto Nº1 like the saliva of a ravenous beast that made Holly want at this moment to get as far away from this room and this house as she could get.

Nº1 seemed to be having some kind of reaction to the gunk from the barrel; his gray skin had gone pale and his eyes were glassy as though he was only barely conscious, his mouth muttering spells that had no effect. If the demon warlock was out of commission, that made Holly the biggest threat.

Holly tried to retreat back out of the manservant's range, but he was too quick for her.

The next thing Holly knew she was inside the barrel. The overpowering stench of the viscous material that had knocked out Nº1's powers was everywhere. She choked as it filled her mouth and nose, and she clawed at the slime as she fought to right herself and get her head above the surface again. It was probably the taste in her mouth that made her realize what it was. Judging from the way Nº1's magic had gone out when he'd been struck with the substance earlier, there was only one thing it could be.

A second later, the small form of Nº1 was pressed in beside Holly, forcing her up against the side of the barrel and making the level of the substance rise, completely submerging the both of them in the sludge with a consistency not unlike mucus. Fat. Animal fat.

The multiple screens around Artemis's study were dark and silent as the manservant laid a lid over the opening at the top. Holly could not so much as even lift her hands to try to stop it before the round object clunked heavily into place, shutting them in.

Everything was thrown into total darkness. However, Holly could still feel Nº1 beside her and stretching out her hands she could feel both sides of the barrel at the same time. The fat pressed up all the way to the steel-lid ceiling now, and there was nowhere to breathe.

They were minutes away from death. There was nowhere to run, nothing she could do to stop it.

An insane fear overpowered all her senses. Holly struck out wildly against the walls of the prison, barely noticing the agony of bone colliding full force with steel. She could feel Nº1 beside her, twitching spasmodically as though he were having a seizure. With his level of magic power, the demon warlock should have been able to blast a hole in the side of the steel even if it was an inch thick or more, but animal fat was a form of natural magic suppressant, and an entire barrel-full was enough to make even the vast powers of one such as Nº1 as good as useless. Not something Butler would have been aware of, but his controller would likely know only too well, being a powerful magical being herself. The horror of using animal fat in this way was indescribable, a method so base that Holly once would have believed no fairy capable of putting it to use. To drown a fairy in a substance composed of the soft body tissue of dead animals, each once with their own spark of individual life and personality now snuffed out... the only way a human could possibly understand the depths of the depravity was to imagine what it would be like to be inundated in human fat.

Holly felt acidic bile rise in her throat. She couldn't see, she couldn't breath. A thousand thoughts were spinning sickeningly in her mind, all completely without coherence or rationality as her reason was drowned in the knowledge that everything was about to end.

A few stray magic sparks attempted to heal her bruises and wounds from her useless fight against the metal, but they were immediately extinguished in the dark, sickening pool. Still she lashed out with ever increasing vigor, pressed on by the burning desperation to suck in just one more breath of oxygen, though she had not even enough room to fully extend her arms or legs.

She felt the warm ooze pressing against her face, squirming into her ears and finding its way inside her one-piece. The screaming of her lungs reached a fever pitch and then began to dull as a dizzying array of colors that faded into blackness danced at the corners of her closed eyes. Her strength faded and her blows to the metal grew feeble.

At that moment however, she felt something hard and long touch her face. She instinctively reached for it.

Somehow, even in her dimming brain she understood what it was. A tube. A tube that led to air outside. Her groping fingers discovered two, and the spark of hope revived her. She quickly used her hands to probe the tube's screw-like texture until she found the opening at the bottom.

Holly resisted the urge to force the tube into Nº1's mouth first, her LEP training taking over. In situations like this, an officer had to deal with her own wellbeing first before she could properly aid anyone else, or everyone could wind up dead.

Holly put the tube to her mouth, trying to let in as little of the rancid gunk suspended around her into her mouth as she could manage. Though she was starting to feel faint, she blew hard with everything she had left to clear the airway, then breathed in. At first she tasted bits of fat in her mouth and felt some going down her trachea, and she had to tighten the muscles in her face and stomach to keep herself from gagging and coughing violently in response. Holly forced herself to blow a second breath through the tube, which fully cleaned it out. Holly sucked in a deep breath of air until her lungs were full to bursting, then pulled her own tube out of her mouth, keeping it clear by stopping the end of it with her thumb.

Nº1 had gone limp beside her. Holly seized the second tube and blew the fat out of that one as well, then had to feel frantically a moment to find the little demon's open mouth. She jammed the tube inside.

Her heart nearly stopped when Nº1 did not immediately react. She had thought a moment before that the worst possible fate imaginable would be to die here enclosed in this small space as her mother had, but she knew now she was wrong. She'd rather die here a hundred times right now than survive twenty more minutes trapped in here with the body of her dead friend.

Holly waited, counting the seconds, forgetting to breathe herself until suddenly Nº1 twitched and with a start made a few strange sounds into the tube, like he was trying to cough, then revived. Holly nearly let a sigh of relief pass her mouth before she remembered her own tube and placed it back in her mouth.

Both still alive then, for the time being.

What was obvious to Holly was that Butler had intentionally spared their lives. Had he been able to at least partially resist Opal's _mesmer_, or was Opal planning to save them for later so she could have the pleasure of killing them herself?

However, Holly didn't have any more paralyzing anxiety to spare contemplating what Opal may or may not have in store for them. The horror of their surroundings was more than enough to occupy her frozen, taxed brain. Holly sucked in deeply through the tube, concentrating on slowing her panicked, staccato breaths.

There was no way to escape, but she couldn't afford to think about that right now. Above all, she needed to have control now. That was the important thing, or so the officer inside her was saying.

Holly wrapped her arms around Nº1 protectively, her eyes closed tight against the heavy, roiling fat swirling around her eyelashes and pushing its way up her nose.

She focused all her thoughts on maintaining a sense of tranquility, hoping that Nº1, whose magical empathy was a lot stronger than that of most fairies thanks to his considerable reservoir of magic, would be able to feel it, even if the fat was sure to interfere with that empathy.

_Calm_, she thought soothingly. What they needed now was to be steady and patient, to keep their reason intact while they waited. While they waited for Artemis to come and save them from this, to come through as he always did.

She felt Nº1's arms around her in return, clinging to her for support, though his limbs felt exceptionally weak even compared to hers, lightly quivering against her waist like the gentle touch of a small kitten.

As Holly reached a more meditative state, she felt her mind begin to ramble aimlessly, random memories and associations drifting through her head as she strove to think about anything and everything but where they were. Feeling the little frightened demon next to her Holly strangely found herself thinking back to those moments before they had gone back in time. Foaly's words when Artemis had tried to insist that Nº1 accompany them to the past came back to her. _"Nº1 is little more than a child."_

Foaly was right. For all the demon warlock's immense magical power, he was still young, so it was her responsibility to do her best to take care of him in a situation like this, even if she was powerless to do much of anything of use. How old had Nº1 said he was anyway? Fourteen?

Her mind flickered again, away from Nº1. It occurred to her that there was more than one child whose life was at risk here. He was out there somewhere, fighting for all of them.

_Here I am,_ she thought vaguely, _yet again left with no other option than to rely on a kid, a genius perhaps, but a child nonetheless. I'm the adult, and an officer of the LEP. At a time like this, it should be my job to take care of everyone who's in danger, to make sure they feel reassured and come out okay. That's my job, isn't it? _

But as always, Artemis, fourteen-year-old human boy though he was, had supplanted her. Not just Holly, Artemis always had all the adults relying on him for answers.

Holly thought of Butler, competent in so many areas of military knowledge and tactical execution, but always looking to Artemis for final decisions on things. She thought of Angeline, how she had looked as she lay helpless, dying in her bed, and of the resulting look on Artemis Senior's face, as though he was drowning and looking to his son to cast out a lifeline. Of Foaly and Mulch and even Commander Root, when he'd still been alive, when the LEP had needed some clever solution to some problem or another.

All of them relied on Artemis and his prodigious talent. In fact, he expected it. But no matter how great his tactical judgment or ingenuity, was it really right that a child should be saddled with the burdens of all their hopes and futures?

Holly's head bent. She hadn't been an adult again for more than twenty minutes. Yet she was waiting here, in the same position as always.

However, Holly forced her mind to close out such useless musings. Artemis wasn't here, so she couldn't do anything for him. Taking care of the child she had in front of her was what was important. If she was relying on Artemis to save them, it was simply because she had no choice; there was no one else.

_Calm_, she repeated, silently trying to send the emotion to the little demon. _Calm._

And Holly realized she did feel remarkably calm now, considering the circumstances.

Because, child or not, whether it was right or wasn't, she really did believe Artemis would save them, if he was still alive. Perhaps she could not trust him not to manipulate her, or lie to her, or do underhanded things behind her back. But when it came to coming to the rescue, saving the lives of those he cared about, Artemis Fowl the Second had yet to fail to live up to her expectations.

* * *

><p>The wait seemed like an eternity, where Holly chanted the word 'calm' over and over in her mind like a mantra. Only sheer willpower kept her from losing control again; she focused everything she had on her sense of purpose, her will to survive and have the little demon beside her make it through too.<p>

This was the second time in as many days she was waiting in a tight space on the verge of panic for Artemis to pull off a miracle. However, if she'd had a choice, Holly would take the duffel any day. No question that Butler and little Artemis's methods were more civil than Opal's.

Holly felt the barrel shudder slightly, then begin to move. Perhaps Butler was taking them to Opal now. If so, this could very well be their execution.

The fat filling her ears muffled all outside sound. The quiet only seemed to make their approaching fate that much more ominous, a prelude to the all-consuming silence of death.

_Listen to me,_ Holly wanted to think scathingly, but their wasn't even room enough in her head to mock her own melodramatic thoughts. Surely being trapped in a cramped barrel of fat on the verge of dying in some inconceivably horrible way was an excuse to be melodramatic if there ever was one.

The muck all around them weighed down on her, and even though Holly could breathe, the pressure of the thick liquid was heavy against her chest. Every breath of air she drew in was an immense effort, like trying to expand her lungs with a layer of bricks sitting on top of them. She concentrated on making her breathing as steady as she could even as the trolley came to a halt and nothing happened for probably half a minute.

Holly's heart-rate jerked unsteadily as a high, strident voice suddenly pierced through the mire.

"_Get the lemur now!"_

Holly felt Nº1's arms tighten around her. She squeezed back reassuringly, though her heart pounded and she sucked harder at the tube, her breathing coming in shorter gasps now.

Holly still couldn't hear anything clearly. The other voices, spoken in normal tones, were like the distant babble of a stream, and she could discern no individual words. Only the voice that surely belonged to Opal Koboi was loud and distinct enough for Holly to understand; however, she thought it sounded a bit different than she remembered. A bit deeper, less child-like. Perhaps the sound was being warped by the fat.

Holly strained to catch everything she could. Blind and nearly deaf, a desperate need to know what was going on took hold of her. However, the most she could gather was that young Artemis was facing off against Opal now, playing his part to distract the pixie-genius while his older self moved like a ghost through the manor, on his way to take care of her. Beyond that, Holly was about as helpless and ignorant as she could be.

A new thought struck Holly then, and she felt chills wrack her frame. Opal had all the power, all the magic on her side. This was all a gamble based on the prediction that Opal would not risk harming Jayjay, and as a result be powerless to do anything to Artemis as long as he kept the little lemur close. But if something went wrong or they underestimated Opal's abilities, Opal could very easily kill the ten-year-old.

What then? If the boy died here, in this time, then obviously he would not be able to grow to the age he was now and do the things he had done. Perhaps the Artemis she knew would fade from this world, and by the strange laws of time perhaps there would be some kind of cosmic mind-wipe as a result, her own memories dissipating like a drop of black ink in the crystal pure but empty waters of a mountain lake. All the battles they had fought together, all the pain they had risen above, all the excitement... As though none of it had ever happened.

_Calm_, she thought, and hoped Nº1 wouldn't be able to sense her inner turmoil. _Calm_.

Again, Holly heard Opal through the fat, though this time the voice was only raised enough for her to catch snatches.

"I would shoot a hundred of you, a thousand... My future! The world's future!"

In the next moment she heard Opal bellowing at the top of her lungs, _"Shoot the boy!"_

_Calm._

No way Butler would ever obey an order like that, even if he was _mesmerized_.

_Calm._

This was Artemis Fowl. He would find a way. Artemis would never die like this.

Holly felt Nº1 trembling against her, his hands tightening around her midsection, and she automatically rubbed his back and held him a little tighter, though her thoughts again spun in dizzying circles and pounded in her head like a hammer against metal.

For some time, the muffled quiet of the isolated space seemed to envelop everything once again. She heard little more than the sluggish gurgle of the pungent sludge drifting lazily around them. Holly wondered if by now Nº1 had lost all hope, abandoned as he was by all but his fairly useless guardian elf.

Hopeless and abandoned. If he did, maybe it was merely his empathy reflecting her own feelings back at her.

Holly could hear the murmur of voices again, but still she had no clue as to what was going on outside. Whether she and the little demon were about to be released, or their deaths were being arranged.

Again Holly's anxiety rose, trying to overwhelm her with all the thoughts of being trapped in this repugnant place, not knowing what would happen to her friends and helpless to help them anyway even if she did. However, she felt at the same time her worries were also beginning to feel muddled, distant. As though her body couldn't take any more tension and her brain was going to shut down in response.

_Calm._

Holly's entire body had gone somewhat limp, her comforting grip on Nº1 now slack, but she was startled out of her semi-daze by a strange sound above her.

It was a sort of scraping sound, much closer than Opal's voice had been. The barrel was being opened. But was this to rescue them or to usher them to their demise?

Holly almost didn't care at the moment. The thought of freedom brought a surprising burst of strength back to her limbs and instantly she surged upward, dragging Nº1 with her until their heads broke the surface.

Holly coughed and hacked as did Nº1. She let the corrugated breathing tubes fall, the objects which had saved them sinking back into the murky depths.

Her eyes still covered with bits of fat and unable to see clearly, Holly had to reach blindly in order seize Nº1 tightly around the middle again, and together they managed to stand. She only had enough motor skills to pull them both clumsily forward, and they flipped themselves out over the lip. Their bodies as limp as rag dolls, they tumbled onto the floor where the soft deep pile carpeting eased the impact of their fall.

Globules of fat still clung to Holly's skin as well as Nº1's, effectively continuing to block all their powers. Holly had never thought she'd ever felt so sick in her life, and she coughed and sputtered violently, doubled over as Nº1 groaned next to her. She wiped at the putrid gunk stuck in her eyelashes and covering her face like a mask of mud.

For almost a minute neither one of them had the strength to do much more than flounder pathetically on the carpet like beached fish, but at last Holly forced herself to raise her head and open her eyes to seek out the face of their liberator. To discover whether he – or she – was friend or foe.

Everything was too bright for a moment as her eyes adjusted from the pure black darkness of the barrel and she blinked rapidly, squinting.

The first thing she saw was a hulking figure lying flat on its back on the carpet not too far in front her. Butler? Holly turned her head slowly until her gaze finally fell on a short figure standing a little ways away.

Holly never would have thought she'd ever be so glad to see that self-satisfied face, at least when he was that age.

"Animal fat," the boy commented, primly flicking a bit of the substance off the hem of his sleeve. "Yes, I did see something about that in my older self's mind. The pixie is as impressive as the two of you described her."

A sense of supreme ease stole through Holly's frame. What strength the remaining tension had kept in her limbs deserted her, and she let her head fall back into the soft carpet again. Her unfocused eyes only dimly registered the thin lacy patterns like silk spiderwebs curling through the thick fibers of the floor inches from her face, little green lines of plant life with tiny leaves.

Young Artemis was not done talking however. "I expect you won't be well for some time," he went on matter-of-factly. "The effect of animal fat on fairy magic I can see is very potent indeed. Astounding."

Holly's initial relief at seeing the younger Artemis Fowl quickly evaporated. Please go away, she thought. I am not in the mood for a lecture on Opal's brilliance.

"The bathroom's over there if you wish to use the shower," he informed her, pointing.

Holly forced herself to turn over and sit up, while next to her Nº1 rolled onto his stomach and pushed himself shakily to his hands and knees.

Holly's body felt as heavy as lead. However, as completely drained of vitality as she felt at the moment, there was a nausea swirling in the pit of her stomach, and getting the awful fat off felt like a more pressing need at the moment than rest. And she thought she would do just about anything to get away from that irksome voice.

Young Artemis, who was staying well out of range of the disgusting substance with apparently no intention whatsoever of helping the two dilapidated fairies, turned away.

Predictable as this was, Holly felt slightly miffed anyway as she watched him go with tired bloodshot eyes.

However, the boy's path took him to the large bed in the middle of the room, his expression changing to one of gentle concern. Holly could just see a thin, skeletal hand dangling over the side of the mattress, and her breath caught, but then the hand shifted slightly and drew back up onto the mattress out of sight. Angeline had made it through.

Holly blinked and glanced sideways as she felt Nº1's fingers around her wrist.

"Holly," he groaned.

"Let's go," she rasped back. Holly climbed shakily to her feet. Finding Nº1 was even more indisposed than she was, she helped him up too, lifting his arm up over her shoulder so she could support him on the short walk to the annex bathroom off Angeline's room.

The few-meter trek seemed endless and when they finally made it, Holly let Nº1 collapse on the white floor tiles in the center of the shower room. She, however, managed to stay on her feet and she trudged over to the controls, despite the sense of vertigo and nausea that swept over her with every step.

"I can do that."

Holly turned to see a shirtless Butler standing in the open doorway. He was looking thoroughly apologetic.

Holly didn't waste any energy bothering with a nod. She simply staggered back a few steps, then collapsed to her knees as Butler walked over. His steps were slow and jerky, and he didn't look much better than Holly or Nº1 if truth be known.

Nausea was overwhelming her again and when Holly coughed hard the air grated against her throat. The smell and feel of the fat gave her shudders and forced up what little her stomach had managed to keep onto the hard floor in front of her. She watched dully as the sickly pale liquid continued to drip in long streams from her mouth and spread out along the cracks between the small white tiles, the smell mixing with the stench of the fat and burning in her nostrils.

However, a moment later Holly felt a hard spray of pleasantly warm water boring into the back of her neck. It blew away the bile and the sickening odor, and Holly lifted her face directly into the blast, raising her hands in front of her as though the water was some kind of blessed holy light.

Butler detached the shower hose from the wall and used it to spray them down more effectively. Holly scrubbed hard at her face with her hands to speed the process of getting the fat off, scraping if off her bare arms and legs and digging it out of her ears.

However, she was still a far cry from being well again. Her elbows and knees ached from where she had hit the sides of the barrel in her bout of madness, and her throat was sore and sensitive from throwing up. But most of all she could still feel the sensation of being smothered in the grotesque, repugnant material, and the memory sent spasms of horror through her entire frame, enough to make her head spin and her stomach churn. She could have scarcely felt worse if someone had worked her over with a crowbar or if she was suffering from a major hangover.

_But we're still alive,_ she thought. _That's the important thing._

"Now _that_ was disgusting," said Nº1 with feeling, making a face and gagging. "That was worse than when Abbott and the other demons used to make me take care of all my classmates whenever they started warping. And a warping demon is covered in mucus and thrown into a dung heap."

Holly's thoughts felt muddled and faraway, and she didn't have the energy to comment aloud. She rather thought that Nº1, despite his complaints, must be recovering, as he seemed to be getting slowly back to his usual talkative self.

Holly, on the other hand, though she felt more at peace mentally now that she was out of the barrel and had gotten most of the gunk off, could not seem to stop feeling sick to her stomach even now. Her throat burned as she continued to cough hard, retching even when there was nothing left in her stomach to give up. Perhaps the difference had something to do with Nº1's enormous reserve of magic. She hadn't had so much as a drop going in, so that could affect the speed at which they recovered.

"Thanks," sighed Nº1, who was lying on his back, smiling a little in Butler's direction. "I think it's all off of me now. Holly?"

Holly nodded once mutely from where she was on her hands and knees, her whole body trembling slightly.

She heard in response a click and the sound of the torrent of water like a heavy rain beating against the floor slowed to a trickle, then ceased.

Holly forced her head to turn so she could see the huge bodyguard out of the corner of her eye. The normally stoic features of his face were bunched slightly, his brown a little furrowed and the corners of his mouth down-turned, sorrowful. Clearly he knew what he had done, and probably felt responsible for it even if it had been under Opal's control. Holly noticed dark bags hanging beneath his eyes, which made him look as exhausted as Holly felt. She also noticed for the first time what looked like a twin pair of black burn marks on his naked torso.

Still slightly out of it, as she stared at the hard bulging muscles of her immense Mud Man friend's chest, arms, and abdomen, a rather stupid thought crossed her mind. Apparently for Butler, less clothing only served to make him look that much more impressive. His usual expensive black suit, a symbol of power where most Mud Men were concerned, actually concealed his real strength rather than enhance it. Seeing him like this one could only feel more fear and respect towards the man. What a contrast; she and Artemis didn't have one shred of dignity apart from their formal attire.

As Butler turned and left, Holly slipped down onto her stomach, letting her cheek rest against the cold tiling. She felt remarkably comfortable like that; the nausea wasn't so bad if she kept absolutely still like this. She could hear voices outside the bathroom, but she didn't even try to make out what they were saying and each of the words slipped through her head without her mind registering any meaning.

Holly noticed Nº1, however, sit up nearby after a few minutes. He leaned back slightly with his long arms thrown out behind him as support, legs stretched out limply in front of him. Though his gray pebbled skin was still a shade paler than usual, he was already beginning to look quite a bit better.

"I really thought we were going to die," he said, still breathing a little unevenly. "That was so _gross_." He suddenly chuckled a little and managed a weak smile. "Gross, that's a good one. Let's see. Vile, icky, loathsome, sickening, repellent, odious, nauseating, foul..."

Holly rolled lethargically onto her back, closing her eyes. "Mm," she agreed. "Foul..."

Nº1 grunted and Holly opened her eyes halfway to see the little demon drag himself over to the bathroom wall so he could put his back against it.

"I guess... it's over now, isn't it Holly?" he asked at length. "Artemis defeated her."

Holly stared with half-lidded eyes at the ceiling, which was surfaced with the same pattern of small white tiles as the floor. "Mm," she said again noncommittally. She certainly hoped so. She didn't think she had an ounce of fight left in her.

The two of them remained silent for several minutes. Nº1 seemed to be silently pondering something, but Holly's mind was totally fried, and she only had strength to stare vaguely at her surroundings, thoughts of a continued hope that this trial really was finally at an end and that all her friends were still alive and in one piece coming and going through her head like wandering vagabonds.

"I think," said Nº1 at last, "I'm going to go see what's happening now."

He got up slowly and, after drying himself off with a towel he found in one of the elegantly ornate cabinets off to the side of the room, headed toward the bathroom door.

Holly only remained behind a few seconds before, listlessly, she forced herself to her feet as well to follow. As she was leaving the bathroom, her eyes fell for a moment on the full length mirror on the back of the bathroom door which had swung partially closed. She caught the barest glimpse of her own haggard form, shoulders slumped with fatigue, black circles under her eyes, face chalky pale. Less than an hour before the same face had been ecstatic with being back in an adult form and in control again. Now she looked like something returned from the dead.

Not even having the strength to so much as wince, Holly looked away without response and continued on after the demon.

* * *

><p>In Artemis's parents' room, she found Angeline's sleeping form on the bed, young Artemis standing at a distance watching her.<p>

Staying as far away from the fat spilled onto the carpet and the fat barrel still sitting in the center of the room as physically possible, it seemed Nº1 had headed over to the window where the orange light of evening had been replaced by a dreary overcast gray. He pushed himself up onto his tiptoes to try to look out over the Fowl estate, perhaps to find out if there was anything going on outside. Holly, meanwhile, turned and walked straight for young Artemis, who was standing unmoving by the bookcase like one of the manor's shorter decorative statues.

"You certainly don't look much better," he commented as she reached him, his eyes finally flickering from his mother momentarily to take in Holly's appearance with a quick cursory glance.

"Where are Artemis and Butler?" Holly asked, too weary to bother with her usual snappy comebacks.

"I am right here," he said with a bit of a curl to his lip, "but if you are referring to my older self, I believe he and my bodyguard went to secure Opal in the security center." His blue eyes returned to his mother. "However, the doctor who was treating Mother and was under Opal's control is still loose, so that could be a problem."

Holly nodded slowly. "Anything I can do?"

Young Artemis moved his gaze from Angeline once again to eye the elf speculatively. "Sit down before you pass out, perhaps," he said. "Over there please, if you don't mind, where I am in no danger of having this suit ruined."

Holly made a valiant attempt to glare at him, but just then someone appeared at the doorway to Angeline's room and her attention was at once diverted.

"Butler," said Holly, turning slowly toward him. "Where... where's Artemis?"

Butler's face was unusually grim, the corners of his mouth tight. Holly felt a prickle of foreboding at the back of her skull. Something was wrong – that was what every bit of Butler's tightly controlled body language was screaming.

"Gone," he said flatly.

Everyone was silent. Strangely, it was Nº1 who was the first to come out of shock enough to speak. He spun around and said with a sharp gasp, "Gone? _Gone_? You mean he's – "

Butler shook his head. "No, I mean he's left."

Confusion nibbled at the edge of Holly's mind. _Left?_

"You mean he's fleeing?" asked young Artemis, frowning. "Or... Ah, I see."

"See... what?" said Holly. Her shoulders were hunched, her back bent as the worry tightening in her stomach brought the nausea rushing back worse than ever.

Little Artemis continued directing his words at Butler. "Opal escaped you then, and her powers have begun to replenish themselves. As a result my older self has taken action to draw her away from here."

Butler nodded once, looking as though he had just swallowed something bitter.

"But why?" Holly wondered. "Why would she go after Artemis when it's Jayjay she needs?"

"He must have taken the lemur – Jayjay – with him," concluded young Artemis. "To serve as bait."

Holly and Nº1 both sucked in sharp breaths, and Holly was forced to bend over as she was set to coughing again as the renewed need to vomit reached a point beyond which she could stand.

"He's using the lemur to draw Opal away from Mother," continued young Artemis, beginning to speak even before Holly had managed to get a grip on herself. His gaze moved slowly around the room, locking eyes with Butler, Holly, and Nº1 each in turn. His own expression remained perfectly cool and unruffled. "After all," he explained, "we would have been in no position to fight her if she came back to retrieve her prize. She would no doubt have killed us all. Consequently, making sure she did not come back by removing what she wanted was the most logical course of action."

Holly was still doubled over, a hand on clenched against her stomach as her throat burned with keeping the taste of bile down even though her stomach was empty. Young Artemis's words sickened her almost as much as the fat had. It seemed so callous somehow, using Jayjay that way, even if it was to save them all. To save Angeline. However, that was just how Artemis was. He had already proven over and over that he would do anything to protect his mother, no matter how ruthless.

"But then..." said Nº1 slowly. "If he's using that little guy as bait and the pixie catches them..."

"This strategy will give us time for your operatives from the LEP to arrive from Tara," said young Artemis smoothly, ignoring Nº1. "They will go after Opal and rescue both the lemur and my older self, if she has not already caught and vaporized them by that point in time. Though I would guess there should be more than enough time for backup to arrive. I assume he would have taken one of the Fowl aircraft, and Opal will likely be somewhat hampered by the tranquilizer my older self used on her, which will prevent her pursuit from being as successful as it might have been, at least right away. In addition, she will likely hold off on any of her potentially more devastating magical attacks, for fear something may happen to her lemur as well."

Nº1's lip trembled, and he looked close to tears.

Butler shook his head slowly. But before he had a chance to say anything, they all heard a strange sort of chattering noise which preceded the entrance of a little animal with soft, puffy white fur, which entered the room by scampering in between Butler's legs.

Young Artemis blinked and Holly stared in disbelief, both equally too stunned to say anything.

"There you are!" cried Nº1 happily, though the exclamation was followed by a short coughing fit. "You're safe after all," he croaked, though he was still smiling.

Jayjay loped across the room and found his way into Nº1's still slightly shaky gray arms.

Young Artemis's brow was furrowed a moment, then smoothed. He still looked mildly troubled however. "I see," he said quietly.

Despite Holly's exhaustion, that was really starting to get on her nerves. Yet again she didn't have a hope of grasping the situation without some further explanation, and she was loathe to ask for it from this particular Mud Boy of all people. However, an unwelcome idea of her own flickered at the back of her mind. Even to think it was enough to make her feel sick to her stomach, and she hated to suggest it out loud, but she she had to know.

"So," said Holly slowly, her voice like the rustle of dry leaves, "So you think... you think he left to escape Opal, not to draw her off."

"A decoy," young Artemis corrected, staring intently at Butler. "That is his plan, isn't it?"

Butler bowed his head, as though it suddenly was as heavy as iron. "Microwave gel pack. If – When Opal scans the ship, she'll pickup two heat sources."

Holly breathed a silent sigh of relief, but it was quickly swept away as she processed what they were saying. Her thoughts seemed to grind to a halt as she stared up at Butler. The huge bodyguard was breathing more heavily than normal, leaning up against the door frame for support.

"But..." Holly said in a low voice, almost breathless, "if Opal discovers he doesn't actually have Jayjay, won't she shoot him out of the sky?"

Butler's facial muscles were tight with suppressed tension as he said calmly, "Artemis is banking on the LEP arriving to capture Opal before that happens."

Holly nodded, slumping slightly. Right. The LEP would save him. This wasn't like when the two of them were back in the past and the only possible hope they had for rescue was each other. Yes, the LEP. Her fellow fairy comrades.

There was nothing more for her to do here but rest and recover. Opal would go back to her time and Artemis would come back swaggering up the avenue with a smug expression on his face, saying how, despite a few blips, everything had ultimately gone according to his plan as always.

As Butler turned and left again, limping off down the hall. Nº1 made calming noises at Jayjay. However, Holly noticed young Artemis turn and walk silently to his still-sleeping Mother's bedside.

He reached out and took her hand gently in his. A moment later he leaned down, saying so quietly into the woman's ear he probably thought Holly couldn't hear, "You don't have anything to worry about anymore. You are safe now, Mother." He smiled slightly, his face as gentle as she had ever seen it. "And so long as you are safe, nothing else in the world matters to me. Not even my own future."

Holly quickly looked away, embarrassed. She slowly closed her eyes. The LEP would surely save him. Surely.

And yet, Holly found herself slowly getting to her feet to follow after the limping bodyguard, though she still could not walk properly. To follow Butler, who, no matter what state he was in, could do nothing else but continue to loyally push himself to do whatever he could for the sake of the welfare his charge.

* * *

><p>AN: Hello again, I'm back. (: (It feels like it's been an especially long time for me this time for some reason.)

So, anyway. Sorry, no schedule. (That is, last chapter I said I might try to work out goals for dates when to post the last chapters, but as of yet I haven't. :c ) It's mainly because I really don't have any idea how long it'll take to finish with the last two. I don't think I'll be able to finish with the last chapter before the last book comes out as I wanted now, but I think I'll be able to get the second-to-last one out before then, and the last one not too long after the last book comes out. I'm going on vacation for a few weeks in a few days, but I'm hoping I'll still be able to work on this while I'm gone, though I'll probably have limited Internet access, so I may not be able to post it right away even if I get finished early.

So, just a couple of notes from me about technical things you're free to skip, as always. (: If you're in a hurry, just go straight down to the final paragraph at the bottom.

1. I really had trouble with the barrel scene... Mainly because not too much jumped out at me that would be worth adding that would contribute to this version of the story. It started out pretty heavily summarized, but every time I read over it, I'd think, 'it's needs more than this.' So I kept adding details that were in the actual book back in... I guess for the most part I felt like the scene would fit well into this story just how it was and there wasn't much I could add.

2. Like the fish pit thing in earlier chapters, there was another part (in the barrel scene) that I didn't know how to reconcile. In the original, the book states that Holly attempts to fly away when Butler comes in, "...releasing her suit's wings from their sheath." (page 328) But she isn't supposed to have a suit yet, unless she took one from one of Nº1's bodyguards in between when they appeared in the study and she told Foaly and Nº1 the situation.

But it doesn't seem like there would have been time for that, especially since the bodyguards were never mentioned as being anywhere around there, since they could have tried to stop Butler if they were; plus, Holly's one-piece is mentioned specifically when she's in the barrel, which would be strange if she had a jumpsuit over it again. Also, there can't be wings for the one-piece, as it was mentioned earlier that there is padding on the one-piece to support a wing rig (which Nº1 told her to remove near the beginning, along with any electronics).

As far as I can tell, it's just an inconsistency, so I just left it out entirely. Wasn't sure about the Neutrino either, but I did try to solve that one... (Though you have to wonder if Nº1 could get her a Neutrino, why he couldn't get her a suit too while he was at it. Maybe the guards have extra weaponry lying around, but full suits are too expensive?)

Anyway, thank you very much for reviewing! We're getting closer... I feel like a lot of the creative block I was feeling with last chapter cleared up with this one, so I'm glad about that. So then, I'll be looking forward to hearing from you. (: Random: I just love the new cover art feature for stories on this site, eheh. (I'm still planning to find/make one I can use for this story that satisfies me; the current one I just found from among my fanart and stuck up there's not that inspiring, lol.)

Posted 6/18/12


	34. Recharge

Disclaimer: The characters, much of the dialogue, and sadly, even the plot are not mine; they all belong to Eoin Colfer.

Pages: 360 – 361

Chapter 33: Recharge

"Butler?"

The manservant, who was relying heavily on the wall next to him to push himself down along the hall, stopped, allowing Holly a couple seconds to catch up. He stood there, his entire frame tense with the kind of dangerous stillness of a tiger about the spring. He was so on wound up Holly rather had the feeling if someone so much as twitched unexpectedly in his presence the manservant was liable to break something.

A bit of color rose back into Holly's pallid face, and she had to work to swallow her embarrassment as she said tentatively, "I know Artemis has two younger brothers. Would it be alright with you if I just borrowed a set of clothes?"

As much as Holly hated the idea of Butler thinking she was being flippant and getting her priorities mixed up, worrying about modesty at a time like this, Holly hated the idea of running into the entire LEP squadron that served as Nº1's personal guard dressed only in her one-piece even more.

Butler stared down at her for a second, expression unchanging, and for a second Holly wouldn't have been surprised if he'd started cussing her out, but then he nodded once. "Just a few doors down from Artemis's study," he said, and he sounded tired. "There's one of Beckett and Myles' bedrooms. There are clothes in there."

"Thank you." Holly started to turn away, then stopped. Her eyes drifted up to settle on the vacant, faraway expression on her giant of a friend's face. Slowly, she reached up to lightly touch Butler's elbow, the highest point she could comfortably reach.

"He'll be fine," she said, trying to inject all the confidence she could into her tone, despite her feeble posture and slightly labored breathing. "The LEP will be here soon, and they'll save him."

The muscles in Butler's face tightened further, and he didn't so much as look at her. "I'm not paid to let others take care of what's are my responsibility," he said in a tone that clearly expressed that there was not going to be any argument meant for the purpose of making him feel better.

Holly's mouth opened automatically to respond, but nothing came out. A sharp sting, the source of which she couldn't have identified, pricked the back of her mind. A sudden flare of heat in her chest. However, Holly quickly pressed both of them back and smothered them beneath a blanket of determined stoicism and reason.

"He'll be fine," Holly repeated at last, uselessly unable to find any better encouragement to give. She knew from experience that, for a man like Butler, it wouldn't be of any consolation whatsoever to try to tell him this had been out of his control, that it wasn't his fault. It wasn't whose fault it was Butler was concerned with.

Holly stood there awkwardly a minute, feeling as though she ought to say something more, but unable to think of anything. At last she turned and simply headed off back down the hall, and she heard Butler's feet resume their heavy tread down the stairs.

Walking slowly, her back slightly hunched to avoid aggravating the churning in her stomach, it took Holly several minutes to reach the twins' room near the end of the hall. Even this small trek seemed a fairly substantial undertaking to her in her impaired state, and as she stepped inside she had to fight to strong urge to sink to her knees and rest a minute. Instead, Holly staggered over to the small bureau over on the other side of a average-sized bed that was low enough to the ground that even Holly could have comfortably gotten into it.

Holly knelt and pulled out the drawer closest to the floor. She was a bit relieved to find that Artemis's young brothers did not follow in their older brother's footsteps in terms of his mania for having a severely limited wardrobe, as Holly definitely felt ready to get into something more comfortable than a two-piece suit; she really didn't know how Artemis bore it, black suits and collared shirts all day every day, all four seasons. He may not have been able to run a mile, but she supposed he was forbearing in his own way.

After rifling through the contents in search of articles of clothing that were devoid of cutesy images or logos of expensive brands, Holly at last drew out a pair of gray elastic shorts and a plain white T-shirt, the latter of which had a little color splashed across the front as though the last wearer had been painting enthusiastically. As Holly pulled the clothes on over her drying one-piece, she found they were a bit too wide for her, seeing as how her body proportions were different from those of a Mud Man toddler and a bit on the short side. However, they would have to do.

Holly was panting and slightly dizzy from her exertion by the time she left and started back to Angeline's room. She went a short ways, then at last gave in and allowed herself to fall back against the wall in the hallway to rest. It wasn't like she had anywhere she needed to be; her part was over.

Holly's eyes fell on the closed door opposite of where she sat, and she recognized the doorknob of Artemis's study. Holly blinked, then closed her eyes to shut out her surroundings. Her head dipped to her knees, but her mind continued to run on despite her desperate need to stop and recuperate.

Holly guessed that the LEP shuttle that had been hanging back at Tara, which Foaly had called at least twenty minutes or so ago, could reach the manor easily within the next twenty. Either she or Butler would quickly outline the situation for them, and they would immediately take off in pursuit of Opal. Artemis and the mad pixie genius had been gone quite a little while now, but even the oldest model fairy craft would be several times faster than a Cessna, or a half-drugged Opal with a wing-pack. The shuttle could surely catch them in half-an-hour after that or less. Or, if Holly could get in touch with Foaly before the shuttle got to the manor, he could relay the information of what was going on right away, and they could go after Opal directly.

For a long time Holly sat there in the long, ornate hallway, trying to clear her mind and meditate. She worked to find a peaceful place deep inside her that would allow her to simply sit here with the perfect tranquility of someone who has let go of all those things now out of their control.

However, unfortunately, meditation wasn't really one of her strong suits.

* * *

><p>Holly's mind was still in the insomniac-like state of being unable to let her sleep, but so blurred with the need for a reprieve from the strain of everything that it happened that it really wasn't good for anything <em>but<em> sleep, when she was distracted from her thoughts by a small noise in front of her.

Holly's eyes slid open to find young Artemis standing in front of the study door. He was looking at her over his shoulder, slim fingers resting on the silver knob.

"Taking a nap, are we?" he said dryly. "I see you are finally getting that chance to relax... Captain, was it?"

"I won't relax until Opal is caught," said Holly, voice slightly hoarse from her still sensitive throat.

"How very noble." Holly caught a glimpse of his lip curling slightly as he turned back to the study door. "Well then, don't let me disturb you."

Holly was about to reply by saying that she _couldn't_ relax, but then she stopped. Her eyes flickered down to where his white hand was still on the knob, then up to his eyes, which she thought she imagined had a sneaky look about them, even by the standards of how he usually looked.

"What are you doing?" she asked, a hint of suspicion creeping into her tone beneath the fatigue.

"Nº1 will have to send me back from this room, won't he?" he said delicately. "So I thought I would just wait here. Possibly take a bit of a look around in the meantime."

As much as she didn't want to, Holly sighed very deeply and heaved herself to her feet, though still staying a little bent and having to rely on the wall behind her for support. "I think you've done enough 'looking around,' Mud Boy," she said, and her voice scratched and grated like an old engine. "Knowing too much about the future will make a mess of things when you get back there."

Artemis ignored her and, returning his attention to the door, silently turned the handle and entered the study without a single glance back.

Holly remained where she was a moment, still doubled over like a hunchback, hesitating. She would have liked to think they were beyond danger from this boy at this point. However, after all her years of experience with him, she knew better; left unsupervised, he would probably have no qualms about hacking into Artemis's computer in order to get a hold of even more fairy-related information than he already had, not to mention the next four years worth of stock prices for every major company around the world.

So, sighing a little to herself and her deadpan expression shifting into a distinct frown, a second after he was gone Holly pushed herself off from the wall and hobbled after him.

The room was now much darker as the sun dropped below the horizon, the evening just now beginning to give way to night. Holly could just make out the congealing patches of a white-yellowish liquid glimmering in the darkness in the center of the room, where the fat from the barrel had spilled out when Butler first caught her and Nº1 less than an hour before.

"What happened to that doctor?" Holly asked, pointedly keeping her gaze away from the semi-transparent globs sinking into the carpet and focusing instead of young Artemis's back, where he was still standing just inside the doorway. "The one Opal was controlling."

"As near as we can tell, he fell unconscious the moment Opal took off in pursuit of my older self," the boy replied as he briskly flipped on the light and made a beeline for Artemis's laptop. "After all, she no longer required him. Butler removed his firearm and locked the good doctor in a guest room." As he spoke, the younger Artemis sat down and drew up the lid as naturally as if it were his. Which, in Holly's view of things, it most certainly wasn't.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Mud Boy," said Holly, trying to be threatening but probably only succeeding in sounding like an aged fairy on a respirator on the verge of dying of old age.

"Of course you would," said the ten-year-old, reaching out and depressing the power button just in front of the keyboard. The machine hummed to life as he continued, "No being could resist learning a bit about his future if he had the chance." He paused. "Especially when the only deterrent is from a source where the warnings are all so decidedly superficial."

Holly let out a frustrated sigh as she stumbled up next to the desk. She really didn't have the capacity to deal with this right now. The boy already knew way, way too much as it was, but she didn't have the energy to fight with him.

He was watching her out of the corner of his eye. "So then, why does my older self appear so young if this time is eight years ahead of mine?" he asked conversationally. Apparently he still hadn't forgotten about that.

"Long story," Holly replied curtly again as she had the first time, hoping she would get the point across she was not in the mood for lengthy explanations just now.

Young Artemis raised an eyebrow slightly. "I'm surprised, fairy. In light of our future relationship, I would expect you to be more generous."

Holly stiffened at the word _relationship_. Just a hint of energy returned to her and, calmly reaching across the boy, she hit the power button on the computer, forcing it to turn off – she hoped she didn't damage Artemis's system – or on second thought she hoped she did – then shut the lid with a snap. She turned her head to stare into the matching blue eyes. She found that, unlike the Artemis from this time, when this boy was sitting down their eyes were nearly level. He looked back at the laptop as though she wasn't worth his full attention.

"One... I don't consider you the same Artemis I know," she said decisively to the side of his face. "He wouldn't sell out a living being to a group like the Extinctionists... let alone do it twice. Two, there is no _relationship_. That was just... just a..." She scrambled to find the words. "It was an accidental... a temporary lapse in judgment. Okay? Thanks to my transformation... It was nothing."

Even this small speech, raspy and broken as it was, was enough to leave Holly a little winded and her stomach felt even more unsettled, but she concentrated on keeping her breathing steady nevertheless and she refused to glance away even once.

After a moment or two, young Artemis leaned back in the computer chair and swiveled the entire thing to face her completely, and Holly had to step back out of the way. The boy's head rested almost lazily against bent fingers.

"...So then tell me," he said lightly, "was it an accident, or a temporary lapse in judgment?"

The issue of child abuse notwithstanding, if she'd had the strength, Holly would have punched him in his self-satisfied face right then, but at that moment the many dark monitors in the room flickered to life, revealing the LEP's one and only paranoid centaurian technical advisor.

"I was just able to get back in a moment ago. I hate to admit it, but it looks like Artemis – _our _Artemis – was right about Opal Koboi... Uh, I hope I'm not interrupting something."

The centaur eyed Holly, who was trying to pull off a glare even as her normally robust complexion was at the moment tinged a chalky pale gray as she stared at the ten-year-old, while he stared serenely back, just a hint of smugness about the turn of his lips.

"No need to worry," said young Artemis smoothly. "It's nothing of great importance. Do you have something to report?"

Those were Holly's lines, but she decided not to contest it. She would probably need a good long rest before she would be in the mood to make snippy remarks or get into a verbal sparring match with Artemis Fowl, no matter which one it was. Her head was pounding, and it also occurred to her that little Artemis had serious blackmail material on her, though she could always vehemently deny every bit of it if worst came to worst. She sighed a little again to herself; she really wished they were mind-wiping him. Knowledge of that particular event was almost as unwelcome as his knowledge about fairies – and his knowledge of fairies was likely to inevitably lead to endless future plans to exploit them.

"Right," said Foaly. "The LEP shuttle should reach the manor soon. Any minute now."

Holly's gaze flickered briefly his way. "You've talked to the LEP? Then tell them about Opal, so they can go after her. Artemis may not have a lot of time."

"I did." Foaly's eyes dropped. He added in a low voice that he struggled to make matter-of-fact, "And they're coming to the manor."

Holly did not fully comprehend what he was saying; however, the gravity in her friend's tone made her limbs seize up, her body freezing in place. Then at last she slowly turned until her entire body was facing the centaur, her eyes rising to the screen once again to meet his more steadily. "What... do you mean?" she began. "They need to get after Opal as soon as they can... Why would they need to stop by here?"

"I wouldn't call it 'stopping by.'"

Holly was silent. A deep sickness that seemed to have taken up permanent residence inside her, like a bloated tapeworm, expanding outward until she felt like her gut would split open, reaching up from the pit of her stomach until it felt like fingers were clawing up her throat. Somehow, her intuition had already told her what he was getting at. What this meant. However, she refused to believe it. She had to be jumping to conclusions.

"What are you talking about?" she asked again through clenched teeth as she bent, an arm around her abdomen as though she'd been punched. Her tone had a harsher note to it now. "They _are_ going after Opal. They have no choice. This is a major emergency; a high-risk criminal is on the loose and a life is at stake. It... can't get anymore clear cut than that."

Foaly sighed. "You'd think so. But... well, you know the LEP."

Holly couldn't get herself to speak at first. "Tell me," she whispered finally. "What did they say?"

Foaly's long face was solemn, and he shifted uncomfortably. "You're not going to like it."

Holly could only stare at him. She knew what was happening, but she didn't know why. It didn't make sense.

Oddly, young Artemis seemed unsurprised. "I thought that might be the case," he said, with the barest hint of a sigh of his own.

"_What_?" Holly demanded, anger flooding her with a sudden burst of energy again, and her eyes darted between the two of them.

Little Artemis was as usual unperturbed by Holly's ire, and he spoke in perfectly calm, measured tones as he replied, "Taking the lemur wouldn't have just made my future self safer from Opal, it would have guaranteed the assistance of your organization. But it seems he preferred to take the risk to ensure the lemur remained safe and out of Opal's grasp. I had hoped perhaps he had strong enough ties with your people so that it may not matter, but it seems that is not the case. Of course a group such as the LEP are bound to have certain objectives that take precedence. It's unfortunate."

Foaly didn't add anything. He shifted restlessly, unable to look Holly directly in the eye, and she knew the boy's evaluation was dead on.

Neither Foaly nor the young Artemis Fowl moved to do anything, and Holly glared at them with tired eyes rimmed with dark circles. Then, without a word, she turned and strode, or rather staggered, from the room.

Using the wall as a support, Holly shuffled down the hallway toward the staircase that would take her to the entrance hall of the manor, where she and Butler had once tangled with a troll, ignoring the twisting nausea in her stomach and the piercing ache in her temple.

Holly gritted her teeth against the discomfort, a flicker of fear at the back of her mind pushing her ever forward. A cold sweat had broken out all over her, but she didn't care.

Like Butler, she continued ever forward, making her way down the simple staircase with difficulty, disoriented by a persisting sense of vertigo. Like Butler, pushing herself even when there was probably nothing she could do, because she could do nothing else.

"_I'm not paid to let others take care of what's are my responsibility..."_

Holly's hand caught on a portion of the banister and she stopped a second, panting. Wasn't it her responsibility too, though? Didn't she have that right?

Gritting her teeth, Holly forced herself onward.

* * *

><p>When Holly finally reached the bottom step, she found Butler standing in front of a whole squadron of armed LEP personnel – Nº1's handpicked unit of elite bodyguards.<p>

Despite not being in much better shape than Holly, Butler was towering over them, looking almost as ferocious as she had ever seen him. To the fairies' credit, they only seem to have shrunk back a little under the giant Mud Man's gaze, though only the captain of the guard standing at the very front of the pack remained defiant and unmoved.

"What did you just say?" said Butler, his voice so low that Holly thought she could feel it like the tremor of an earthquake in her chest.

Holly had to admit she was impressed with the captain of Nº1's personal escort. If Butler had been looking at her like that, she would have been going as fast as she could in the opposite direction. The elf must certainly be a brave one indeed – or perhaps he was just a moron, pure and simple.

"Try cleaning the mud out of your ears, human," said the captain, with shocking bravado under the circumstance, circumstances being Butler glowering at him with enough force to burn a hole in the captain's broad forehead. "The capture of Opal Koboi is not the arriving squadron's primary concern. The LEP want to be certain the demon Nº1 and the lemur are completely secure. The pixie can be dealt with at a later time, by the Retrieval unit now being authorized to be sent up from Haven."

Butler's fists were clenched at his sides, shaking, but he still spoke in a voice of forced calm. "Artemis... the boy who brought the lemur is in danger _right now_."

"He is also responsible for providing Koboi access to this time," noted the captain. "If this human _Artemis Fowl – _" he said the name as though it were a curse word – "is as clever as they say, he should have no trouble anyway."

"You're... You're not going to go get him?"

This question came, not from Butler, but the elf standing at the bottom of the stairway, leaning against the bottom of the handrail and dressed in a sad assortment of mud-child clothing.

The captain of the guard eyed her attire and took in her sickly appearance. "Captain Short," he said. "You should expect strict disciplinary action for the poor judgment you have shown here. Unless you want to argue that you have acted under threat and duress from these humans."

Holly ignored this. It wouldn't be the first time she disobeyed orders and got punished within an inch of her life for it. Probably wouldn't be the last either, unless she was fired, which was looking like a distinct possibility at the moment.

"What about Artemis Fowl?" she asked in formal tones, though she couldn't quite fully detach herself from the railing. "Are you going to abandon him?"

The captain snorted. "_Abandon_," he said with derision. But his face was solemn and serious without the least hint of mockery as he continued, "One cannot _abandon_ someone who is neither a comrade, nor an innocent in any way, Captain Short."

Holly felt a bitter taste in her mouth. She would have liked to march up to the captain right then, with all his muscle and battle scars, and hoist him up by the lapels, but even if she'd still been physically capable of such a thing at the moment, she knew better than to think it would do any good.

Butler was staring at nothing, his fists still clenched at his sides so hard the tendons stood out on his wrists like steel cables. But then his hands relaxed, perhaps an acknowledgment that he knew he couldn't say anything that would make them change their minds.

Nº1's guards marched forward into the manor, heading for the stairs, flowing around the mountain of a bodyguard standing there stock-still, like the flowing of a stream around an immovable rock. The captain shot a look at Holly again.

"May I ask what became of your suit, Captain?"

"Opal has it," she replied dully.

He arched an eyebrow. "I'm not even going to ask."

The footsteps of the small battalion faded up the stairs.

Butler still stood in the corner of the hall, frozen.

Holly felt stunned, breathless. Still leaning against the railing, she sank slowly to sit on the bottom step.

"_Artemis is banking on the LEP arriving to capture Opal before that happens."_

The LEP were never going to arrive now. At least no where near in time to be of any help to Artemis. He was going to be fighting Opal all on his own.

But surely he had some sort of backup plan. He always had a backup plan.

Flashes of a figure lying in the thick grass of a jungle habitat, arm twisted at a sickening angle and spatters of blood standing out against deathly pale white-skin flickered across her mind. No matter if he had a plan, if he made a mistake like he had all those times in the past...

Holly's breath caught slightly when Butler suddenly moved, a statue coming to life. He strode over to the wall by the door and yanked a device similar to a walkie-talkie out of its cradle, though it still remained attached to the wall with a cord that took the place of an antenna. Rapidly punching several buttons, he put the device to his mouth.

"Artemis?" he said, his voice so perfectly steady anyone would think all was going according to plan if they didn't know the bodyguard as well as Holly did. "Are you there, Artemis?"

"Butler, old friend," came back Artemis's voice a moment later, interspersed with bursts of static, "I'm here. Tell me the good news." There was just a touch of irony to his tone.

Hearing his familiar timbre gave Holly a momentary thrill of relief. He was alive and all right, at least for right now.

Butler let out a breath, and just a tinge of hopelessness crept into his tone as he said bluntly, "They're not coming after the Cessna. You are not the priority."

"Nº1 is," said Artemis immediately, not sounding in the least surprised, as in control of things as always. "They need to get him below-ground. I understand."

"Yes," said Butler wearily. "Him and..."

Artemis cut across his bodyguard. "Say no more, old friend. Opal is listening."

A chill crept down Holly's spine. How close was the pixie then? Holly's helmet could only intercept transmissions without Foaly's assistance within a certain range, and that was the equipment Opal was working with. But in any case, Artemis was right: they could not afford to risk letting Opal know Artemis did not really have Jayjay.

"The LEP are here, Artemis," said Butler, a touch of urgency making its way into his calm baritone voice, despite his disciplined professionalism. "I want you to turn around and fly back." There was a certain sternness about the tone, a sternness that masked the look of tense, distinct unease etched into his hard face, which at the moment Artemis could not see. Holly had to admire the bodyguard's fortitude at a time like this, when one of the people he cared about most in the world was in critical danger and he could take no immediate action to be of assistance.

_Yes, _she thought. _Come back here, Artemis. You've done enough._

There was a pause, nothing but crackling static from the other end. Holly strained to hear, but there was no reply at first. When his voice finally did come through again, she froze, and she knew there was disbelief carved all over her face.

"No," said the boy with awful finality. "I will not put Mother at risk again."

Butler's entire body was tense at these words and he said, apparently using every bit of strength he possessed to force his tone to remain composed, "Very well. Another location then. Someplace where we can dig ourselves in."

Holly, meanwhile, felt a numbness spreading through her.

"_You are safe now, Mother. And so long as you are safe, nothing else in the world matters to me. Not even my own future."_

_Why?_ she wanted to know. Why was he continuing to deliberately place himself in the path of peril? But she knew why, of course. It was always his parents. He would do anything for their sake, including the most despicable things. Look at all he had done on this trip alone, and when she thought about it, his younger self had essentially been doing the same, exchanging the lemur and then a fairy for the chance to save his father. There was no limit to the lengths he would go, lying, cheating, stealing.

However, apparently she was seeing now that ignoble methods were not his only tactic. He was so dedicated to his goals that he would even risk his own life, continue pushing himself further and further into danger until there was no hope of escape.

Holly covered her mouth as though about to be sick again.

_Of all the idiotic times to start developing a heroic streak._

Holly closed her eyes. He sounded unruffled, in command as always. So surely he must have a plan of some kind.

But wasn't Artemis just the type to feign confidence at all times to stop their worrying, no matter what the circumstances? Smart as he was, what could she realistically believe him capable of achieving left all alone against Opal's powers? The most anyone could accomplish would be to keep running away, keep running away either until help arrived or until Opal finally caught and killed him. But now he knew that that help was never going to arrive, and so that strategy was hopeless. Without any safe place to flee to, there was nothing more to do but run, and run, and run... And how long could that last?

"Very well," replied Artemis. "I am on a southerly heading anyway, so why not – "

Artemis's voice was abruptly cut off by a screeching squall of sound that assaulted them from the communicator.

Holly cringed, reflexively pressing her hands to her sensitive ears to protect them.

When the noise finally petered out, Butler called in his deep voice, that note of urgency pushing through the calm again, "Artemis? Are you still there, Artemis?"

No answer. The line was dead.

Holly could not help but think back to when she had sat crouched in that empty dye vat in the souk. Once again they had been cut off, this time by Opal. In which case, it might not just be the line that was...

_No._ Holly's hands fell slowly from her ears. _I will never accept it._

Butler, meanwhile, was as pale as Holly had ever seen him. It seemed to cost him a great effort not to crush the communicator in his expansive hand as he shakily mashed it back into its cradle.

He suddenly turned, expression extremely calm and business-like, like he was just about to leave for an everyday business meeting. Holly had an inkling he meant to take one of the Fowl vehicles and set off south down the road, or else take off for the airport to retrieve one of the Fowl aircrafts, to search for his charge manually himself, combing to the entire southern end of the country inch by inch until the two of them were reunited. Holly had no doubt Butler would be capable of such dedication, though it probably wouldn't be the most useful course of action right now. And Butler still wasn't in any shape to be going anywhere anyway when he could barely walk properly.

"Wait."

Butler stopped, but didn't turn around.

Holly had forced herself to her feet, though she still leaned heavily on the banister. Artemis relied on his faithful bodyguard and worst-enemy-turned-friend fairy LEP captain more than anyone for most all his plans. Yet how pathetic and useless the pair of them must look right now.

"I'll go," she blurted breathlessly. "I'll get him. I just need a suit."

Butler hesitated, turning slowly back to her. Dark blue eyes met Holly's mismatched ones as she stared up at the bodyguard with steely determination.

She pushed herself off the handrail, making herself to stand straight at last, but as she took a step toward the hulking bodyguard, the world suddenly spun in an array of dark and light colors as she was hit with another wave of dizziness and she wobbled.

Butler automatically reached out a hand to steady her and as she grasped it the hand felt as steady and reliable as the handrail.

Holly raised her gaze, having to tilt her head nearly as far back as it would go to see his face. In his expression, she saw just a flicker of hope, but it was quickly overridden by anxiety and doubt.

"As much as I would like to send Artemis help," he began, sounding as though the words pained him, "you're obviously in no condition to go anywhere, Holly." Just a flicker of guilt passed over his grave features, over what he had done while under Opal's control.

He was right of course. Holly would need more time to recover before she would be of any use to anyone. But the truth was that now was not the time to worry about what she could or couldn't do. It was immaterial. She would never be satisfied unless she had done everything she possibly could, exhausted all possible avenues of action to intervene on her friend's behalf.

"No choice," said Holly shortly, her voice strained and cracked. "Just get me a suit off one of Nº1's bodyguards. Besides, I... think maybe I'll be fine once I'm in the air. I was born flying." She tried to force a smile.

Butler stared down at her, eyebrows slightly lifted. If Holly hadn't know better, she would have thought he looked amazed. An expression of true gratitude on the normally hard, stoic bodyguard's face slowly spread from one side to the other.

"You'll be fine," he repeated, still sounding doubtful, but seemingly unable to stop himself seizing on this small spark of light he was being offered. "Are you sure?"

Holly most definitely wasn't sure. She hadn't felt so ill in a long time. But she thought perhaps all this nausea wasn't just from the memory of having the thick, slimy substance all over her, pressing in on her body and crushing the air from her lungs, getting gummed up in her nose, on her eyelashes, in her ears. Rather, perhaps it was just as much from the intense sense of claustrophobia. In which case, maybe getting out into the open really would help. At least, this was what she was trying to convince herself, and that the movement of flying wouldn't actually make her feel even sicker still.

"Yes, it'll be fine," she said, probably lying, though trying to use that tone of certainty that Artemis always used whenever he was most determined to get what he wanted. "I just need a moment more, and then all I need is a suit."

"Hmm." Butler frowned. Evidently she wasn't pulling off 'the tone' very well.

However, the bodyguard let go of her and went around her up the stairs. Halfway up he paused a moment, his back to her.

"Holly," he said quietly. "I really don't know how to thank you. I... don't know where we would be without you."

Holly gazed up at him. A small hard knot that she had been carrying inside her ever since the incident with Hybras eased ever so slightly. "He's my friend too," Holly replied softly. "Even if there's no way I can make it in time, I have to try." She hesitated. "And you know Artemis. I bet he really does have a plan anyway."

The bodyguard did not turn around. He gave one sharp nod, then wordlessly continued on up, one labored step at a time.

Holly let herself sit back down again as her head spun and her unsettled stomach felt like it was making strange contortions inside of her. She leaned back against the rail once more, closing her eyes and trying to get in a last few moments of rest and peace.

But a kind of restless panic that weighed her down and paralyzed her was already there, worming its way into the core of her mind, the way the bits of fat had wormed their way into her nose and ears and under her one-piece. Artemis was somewhere out there, continuing to serve as live bait, luring Opal ever farther away from the manor and his mother by making the pixie think he had Jayjay. The game of cat and mouse could not last much longer, if it was not already over. Sooner or later, something would give, and once her magic came back, Opal would be the one in control.

Holly knew she didn't have the time or excess energy to waste worrying on such things. She needed to concentrate on what needed to be done and nothing else. However, perhaps her thoughts refused to bend to her will because deep down she knew that it was already far too late. That she would never reach Artemis in time to make a bit of difference. That if Artemis had no alternative plan, he would die, just like Commander Root, just like her mother.

* * *

><p>The sound of Butler's heavy footfalls as he lumbered back down the steps reawakened Holly to her surroundings.<p>

She closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them again, letting the hardness reform itself in them. She would never give in, no matter what the odds. Even in the face of there being no chance at all, she would keep going to the end.

Something flopped down next to her on the steps and Holly glanced at it, seeing right away that it was a dark squad uniform.

"Here," he said. "They were only too happy to let you use it."

Despite herself, Holly managed a weak grin, imagining Butler's way of 'asking' to 'borrow' a suit from Nº1's body guards. She sincerely hoped it was that brazen captain of Nº1's bodyguards, though that would probably be setting her sights a little high.

"How will you know where he's gone?" Butler asked as Holly got up and headed around behind the stairs to change.

Holly already had a plan for this. "Opal's still wearing my suit. I should be able to use the radiation trail my suit leaves behind to track her and determine where she is, and wherever Opal is, Artemis will be."

As Holly began to strip out of the toddler's outfit, Butler turned away, doing routine checks on his Sig Sauer to make sure it was working properly. Probably his equivalent of nervous fidgeting.

Holly pulled on the suit with some difficulty, zipping it up with stiff, unwieldy fingers as the material shrank slightly to better fit her. She latched up the belt full of equipment, and she fingered the Neutrino at her hip. It felt good to be packing heat again.

However, as she stepped out from behind the staircase, she had a thought that, even though she had a weapon now, she probably wouldn't be able to shoot it straight as yet another wave of vertigo made her feel sick again, threatening to send her into another wracking coughing fit.

Butler noticed her unsteadiness immediately. The uncertainty was back in his face. "Holly, are you certain you can do this? Perhaps I should just – "

Holly shook her head vigorously, then wished she hadn't. Still, she forced herself to straighten up, trying to force the nausea back down her throat with sheer willpower.

"I will be fine," she said, with more authority than the first time, though she imagined again how her normally dark, healthy skin must still be bleached and sickly at the moment, testifying against her words. "No choice," she reaffirmed.

Slotting the suit's helmet onto her head, she turned around to start for the front entryway.

"Going?" said a voice. "Going where?"

For the first time Holly saw Nº1 standing in the open doorway, flanked by a group of his burly bodyguards, Jayjay perched safely on the little demon's shoulder, and she wondered how long they had been there without her noticing. She caught sight of one guard lurking off to the side looking rather sulky, dressed only in what appeared to be one of Butler's shirts, the long white material reaching all the way to the floor and even bunching up in rippling piles over his feet.

The guards were all carrying the latest and most advanced LEP weaponry, including laser rifles that were almost as long as Nº1 was tall. Thankfully none were being pointed at her, but the group was blocking her path.

"I'm going after them," she said, almost defiantly, daring either Nº1 or his guards to try to stop her.

She saw the captain of the guard scowl behind his visor, but he said nothing. Technically the two of them were of equal rank, so he couldn't order her to do anything. Instead, everyone standing there looked to Nº1.

The little demon's face suddenly broke out into a smile. "You won't get far looking like that," he commented. Jayjay chattered his agreement.

Holly's vision was blurring and she still felt dizzy. Too much stress. Too much moving around.

"Get out of the way," she ordered, then added, a bit more kindly since she knew her demon friend didn't mean any harm, "Please, Nº1."

Nº1 continued to beam at her and suddenly Holly noticed something.

"You're looking good," she said in a rasp, eyes narrowed slightly with suspicion. "Too good. Almost back to your usual chipper self. Don't you feel sick at all?"

Nº1 shrugged, still smiling. "Just a twinge. Once I got all the fat off, I got to feeling better right away and I even got control over some of my magic just a bit ago. I won't be back to a hundred percent for a while, but I'm getting there."

Holly stared, then shook her head slightly. Unbelievable. Not for nothing was Nº1 considered the most powerful demon warlock of this millennium.

"So..." Holly began slowly. "What you're saying is..."

Nº1 raised his stubby fingers, red sparks beginning to dance around the tips. His yellow eyes sparkled.

"Think you could do with a recharge?"

"Do I ever," Holly replied gratefully, and was only too happy to let the warmth of Nº1's magic engulf her and meld with what little was left of her own.

Holly felt Nº1's magic chase away the weakness and nausea, and even somehow chase away the debilitating fear of Artemis's demise, at least for the time being. The magic seeped in and filled every part of her being. When Holly opened her eyes, she felt like a new fairy.

"Thanks, Nº1," she said. She turned to Butler and said with that usual dependable slight cockiness she hadn't had in days, "I'll be back with him before morning."

Then, without another word, she turned and ran for the door, weaving with easy grace around Nº1 and his guards.

Holly ignored the warnings and shouts of protest that rang up behind her as she leaped down the steps and powered her legs down the gravel drive, the ground crunching beneath her boots.

Holly was no longer smiling now, her face a mask of absolute determination. She was going. She would do everything she could, even if in the end that amounted to absolutely nothing.

_I'm coming, Artemis, _she thought. _Whatever you do, don't die._

And with that, she propelled herself off the ground with all her might, activating her wings in mid-jump, and rocketed off into the darkening night sky, shimmering out of sight.

* * *

><p>AN: Hey there, I just got back from vacation yesterday, and the first thing I did this morning was get up and finish working on this. Yeah, I really wanted to finish it before TLG (The Last Guardian) came out tomorrow... (Just one more chapter left now! I couldn't say whether some of you will find it disappointing or not, but I'm following my own vision with the hope I won't have any regrets. (; )

So anyway, it looks like I'm going to be a bit more chatty even than usual this time. XD (Lol, my author's notes are way too long, aren't they?) As always, you can skip to the last paragraph if you like. (: I'm just going to talk about my plans for posting the next chapter and talk a tiny bit about TLG, the new AF fanfiction project I'm working on that I'm going to start posting on very soon, and lastly the usual technical notes about issues I ran into in writing the chapter in comparison with the original TTP.

First, the final chapter of this won't come out until after TLG, and definitely not before I've read it myself. (I ordered it online so I wouldn't have to make a special trip to the bookstore, lol, but that means I have to wait for shipping, so I probably won't get it for a week after that. So I'll have to stay off here and AF forums for a while if I don't want it spoiled, I suppose. XD) I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some A/H themes in the story, lol. You know, at least carrying on with some of the elements that were introduced but left unresolved in TAC, and wrapping them up a little... But overall I hope there won't be too much, because more people will be looking to read A/H fanfiction if they aren't satisfied, right? (; (My sister says I'm a bit twisted and maniacal... I can't argue with that.) Haha, you'll all have to tell me what your overall opinions of the last book are when you read it. (:

Next on the agenda is the new project. I know I already talked about this to a few people, but I wanted to mention it here too in case anyone is interested. (: Even though this fanfiction is drawing to a close now, I'm not feeling ready to leave the AF fandom alone yet, so I have another story in the works now, lol. Actually, this 'new' fanfiction is really my first AF-fanfic attempt, and this TTP-parallel fanfiction just kind of came about as an offshoot from an idea I had for that one. (I was planning to just have one or two chapters where Holly flashes back to the events of TTP, and we see various scenes from her point of view, but I kept wanting to do more and more, and eventually I wanted to try to make the whole thing work by itself).

So, you could legitimately consider the new story a post-TAC sequel to this one, at least in terms of themes and such. Originally I wasn't planning to start posting anything on it until I was completely done with this, but that was when I intended to get this all out before TLG came out. Because I wanted to start posting on it almost right at the same time as the last book came out, kind of as an experiment to see whether strategic timing of fanfiction posting affected the amount of 'foot-traffic' the stories got. (Yes, I'm weird and like to do experiments like that. XD)

So yeah... I plan to post the prologue shortly, and I'd be happy if I was able to meet with some of you again over there, if you liked. (: Basically the main driving point of the plot is Opal's working to set things up so she can take her revenge on Artemis by framing him, and turning everyone including his closest allies against him, in order to take full advantage of Artemis's criminal history and his current state of mental impairment (ie, his Atlantis Complex). However, Opal faces the obstacle of the fact that she's pulled practically the same stunt twice before, and Artemis and the others are all on the lookout for this precise strategy. But she has a plan, and she's not too worried.

At the same time, oblivious to exact form Opal's strategies are taking, Artemis has his hands full struggling with feelings of a loss of self-worth brought on by the Complex, and Holly is plagued by a sense of helplessness in regards to her ability to help at all in Artemis's battle with his mind, conflicted between a need to do something about the problem, and in being unable to, a need to escape.

So yeah, that's it. We'll see how it goes. It's a far more complicated story than I've ever attempted to write before, but I've been doing my best. (: Most of the chapters are going to be obscenely long, so that will mean longer intervals between updates, but there's no helping that... Personally, in doing a ton of self-betaing on both of these stories, I've found the 'new' one easier to get through (while this one's more tedious at times, and harder to get back into once I've gone away from it for awhile, I think partly because so many of the events are just retelling of things I already read, and I already know precisely how it's going to end), but maybe that's just my bias as the author. (;

Last quick technical note: Interestingly, in the original TTP, Artemis comments that Holly and Nº1 will be diminished for 'hours' from the dunking in the animal fat, but it clearly hasn't been hours when Holly leaves to go after him, as I don't think that there's anyway that the whole Artemis/Opal battle from the time he leaves the manor could be more than an hour or an hour and a half, judging from the fact he has only gone sixty miles before Opal crashes him. So my solution was to make it so Artemis underestimated Nº1's power.

Hmm, yes, way too long of an author's note again. XD But it's better to have long author's notes you can skip over if you want than no author's note when you'd like to read them, yeah? (For some reason, a lot of the time I look forward to author's notes... which is why I tend to write so much of them, I think. But maybe this is overkill...?) Anyway, thank you so much for reviewing last chapter! I'll be looking forward to hearing from you, as always. Have fun reading TLG!

Posted 7/9/12


	35. Different Worlds

Disclaimer: The characters, much of the dialogue, and sadly, even the plot are not mine; they all belong to Eoin Colfer.

Pages: 374 – 383

Chapter 34: Different Worlds

The stars twinkled overhead as Holly streaked through the night sky. A moving, pulsating red light beeped in her visor on a grid-map, indicating where Opal was at this very moment. As Holly had hoped, the radiation trail Opal left in her wake made it possible for the computer to calculate the pixie's exact location.

_Too far._

Holly pushed her wings to go even faster. They were a newer model, similar to the ones she had been using for the Kraken Watch mission earlier that day, complete with greater speed capabilities than the models she had been accustomed to using before Hybras and body sensors for better control.

Kraken Watch – it seemed like an age ago now.

Below her, glowing lights from the tall buildings of the city of Dublin, train tracks that snaked along beside jagged rocks that hugged the sea line, and a scattered battalion of fishing boats tied to docks bobbing in the water all shot past in the darkness like phantoms. Technically, Holly knew, it was against the rules for her to fly right over inhabited areas like this without clearance, but there was not a moment to waste. She would do things as she always had: accomplish what had to be done now, worry about the rules and consequences later.

Holly's mind was clear with her single-minded determination. But in the quiet of that clarity of thought, she suddenly heard a soft voice speak up from the back of her head, as her mind made the connection she tried to force back down.

"_Go and save Artemis. That's the last order I'll ever give you, Captain."_

Holly's insides tightened convulsively. In an instant she flashed back to that event over three years ago for this world, the image of that night as she sped toward that hotel where Artemis and Butler were staying swimming to the surface of her mind. She could still see that place where her friends were both about to die in front of her, but even more she recalled acutely the feelings from that time that had been pumping through ever fiber of her being. Anxiety, desperation, hopelessness – and, of course, the impression of being completely and totally alone.

"_Have you come to gloat? Does murder make you happy?"_

This could not happen again. She could not let it.

"_Hmm? You know, it does. It actually does make me happy."_

Holly's hands strained forward, trying to drive the wings to new heights of speed, but the pack was at its limit.

_Not fast enough. I'm never fast enough._

The image of blue light flooding Artemis and Butler's apartment flickered in her thoughts. Artemis and Butler had survived the attack, but that was no victory of Holly's. Holly had been unable to do anything that strayed in the slightest outside Opal's previous calculations for her.

"_I just followed you because I wanted to see what total despair looks like. It's not very fetching, is it?"_

Please, she thought. No matter what you have to do, Artemis, beat her like you always do and pull off a miracle. The commander and I couldn't, but you can.

"_I think there's a spark of hope in you yet. So I would like to extinguish that."_

Holly forced herself to breathe deeply. The dark ground was a blur below her, and a cold light rain had begun to fall as at long last the image of the beautiful, childlike face twisted with malice Holly had come to know so well rose majestically through the other memories, brushing them aside, filling all Holly's foremost thoughts.

Holly glared at the sky in front of her, angry tears stinging her eyes. How long was this going to go on? How much more would Opal take away from her before the evil pixie was satisfied?

Holly knew she should be able to believe in Artemis, believe in his genius. He had, for one, managed to rescue her from the Extinctionists in the face of overwhelming odds. But even a brilliant strategist had limits. After all, what could even the greatest of chess masters do if he was separated from his pieces?

Holly blinked back the tears. This wasn't over yet. However, a moment later she blinked again, this time because she had noticed something on the readout in her visor.

Just then however a voice issued through the intercom in her helmet, interrupting her thoughts.

"Good gods, Holly, what are you doing?"

"Foaly?" said Holly with mingled surprise and relief. "Is that you?"

"Who else would it be?" replied the centaur testily. "Now I'm going to ask you again. Holly, what in Frond's name are you trying to do?"

"Rescue mission," was Holly's terse response.

"You swiped a suit off Nº1's bodyguards, flew straight over Dublin, and are now going after Opal without backup – obviously none of which you've been authorized to do, by the way. Have you gone mental? Lose some brain cells in the transfer through the time stream? Trouble is going to murder you when you get back, Holly, and he's already not too happy about the time travel bit, though you probably guessed that."

"Opal is going to murder Artemis if someone doesn't do something," Holly answered shortly.

Foaly hesitated, apparently torn between concern for Holly and worry for their mutual human friend. However, he probably knew there was nothing he could say to make her turn back.

"Holly," he said, almost tentatively. "You know it's probably already too late. Look at the map. Opal's signal stopped moving. That means..."

Holly had seen it too. Opal had been shooting along at a steady pace for awhile, but now her movement on the map was almost inconsequential. There were only two reasons she would have stopped: One, her wings had been damaged beyond use or she herself had been incapacitated somehow. Unlikely, considering the extent of her magical powers and the fact she could fly even without a wing rig. Or two... Artemis's plane had been grounded and there was no longer any need for her to fly.

Holly stared at the pulsing red dot on her screen. Had Opal forced Artemis to land, and was now sauntering into the cockpit, only to discover Jayjay was not there? Or had she already discovered the truth, and forced the plane to crash out of spite, only pausing to pick through the debris so she could take out her wrath on the helpless pilot?

There was something else Holly found strange, though. About the coordinates where Opal's dot hovered... Was it a coincidence?

"There of all places," Foaly muttered.

Holly didn't reply. Yes, it seemed so ironic. The place so near where it all began, where Artemis gained the magical power enough to _mesmerize_ his own parents so they would forget he had been gone for three years, where they had rescued a whole civilization of demons, the eighth family of fairies, including a little demon warlock with the power to send a human boy and a fairy LEP captain through time. The village of Duncade, right by where the demon island of Hybras had landed.

* * *

><p>Holly was fast approaching her destination, where Opal and presumably Artemis were located. Had Opal discovered the truth yet? Was she at this very moment screaming in rage over having been thwarted in her goal, stamping her foot next to a mangled, pale corpse?<p>

Holly seemed to tear a hole in the dark, starry sky, pushing for every extra second she could get. Adrenaline from anger and fear pumped through her, nervous tension stiffening her entire frame. Holly had a feeling that by the time she got back to Haven she was going to be practically dead, even with the energy-spike Nº1's magic boost had given her.

"Could be worse ways to go, I suppose," said Foaly after a few minutes' silence, sounding almost like he was talking to himself. "He saved his mother and the lemur in the one brave, selfless act of his life." He hesitated. "Holly. If you can't make it... well, you know he made his own decisions. And at least it would be while doing something for a noble cause. Right? Holly?"

Rarely had Holly heard her centaurian friend speak so sincerely. Holly knew she ought to agree, to take his offer to allow herself to begin to mentally prepare for the worst, as possibly the only fairy to fully appreciate Artemis's genius and vice versa was obviously doing. But she couldn't.

"He's fourteen, Foaly," said Holly, almost harshly. "A child." To talk about his having 'nobly sacrificed himself for a cause,' it was too much.

Foaly was apparently revived a bit by Holly's hostility. "A child," he repeated, snorting, though the level of downcast anxiety kept it from sounding either really argumentative or amused. "And just who exactly would call him that? Least of all our Mud Boy himself."

Foaly was right, Holly supposed, even if what she had said was technically true. Artemis did not think of himself as someone to be protected in the sense one would want to protect a child from harm. Wasn't he always the one to step forward to take command, to take responsibility for keeping those underneath him safe instead? Perhaps he was a bit similar to Commander Root in that respect.

Holly was getting close. Opal was just a little outside the village according to the reading in her helmet. Holly could just make out the outline of the distinctive landmarks along the coast in the distance, most notably the two enormous rocks that jutted vertically out of the landscape known to the locals as 'Mother Superior' and 'Little Sister' because of their vague resemblance to a pair of nuns.

Opal was there, right on top of the Little Sister according to the readout in Holly's visor, still inching along. The pixie was moving so slowly that Holly couldn't actually see the red dot moving on the map, but the coordinate numbers were changing. Perhaps Artemis really had managed to injure her somehow.

Holly closed in on the spot. A few minutes at most now.

Vaguely, Holly wondered what she would do when she did arrive. If Opal was in possession of all of her magical powers, what could Holly do when she finally got there? Not for nothing would the LEP insist on having an entire squad present to take down Opal. But Holly was a trained officer and physically more capable than the pixie ever was; surely that had to count for something. They had to defeat Opal and make certain justice was served. Except, now that Holly thought about it, they would only be sending the pixie back to the past, not to the dank, dark prison cell where the queen-of-the-world-wannabe belonged. Opal always somehow seemed to worm her way out of paying her just dues.

Holly's blood boiled suddenly, a fierce blaze roaring to life in her chest. A bitterly acidic taste twisted her mouth into a fearsome scowl. _If he's dead, Opal, then I promise you – _

Before Holly could complete the thought, her head jerked a millimeter in a flinch as an enormous pillar of orange light erupted from the ground just on the edge of the village, accompanied by a distant _boom_ that up close must have been deafening.

Foaly was back in her ear immediately. "What happened?" he said in an unusually authoritarian tone.

"An explosion," reported Holly, her voice calm though her heart was pounding. "Over there. Right where..." She bit hard into her lower lip, then asked, "Is Opal still alive?"

She heard the tapping of keys.

"Yes," Foaly replied firmly. "Looks like your suit saved her. Lucky thing – that would have been one messy paradox if the Opal from eight years ago died on us."

Holly privately thought that if history changed so that Opal's role was cut short, it could only be a change for the better, but didn't bother to voice the comment aloud as she focused all her attention on making it to the spot. Fire and rock was falling back to the ocean below now, with an odd sort of sluggishness as though in she was watching a slow-motion action scene in a film.

Holly could hear the villagers of Duncade already crying out in alarm in the distance, some snatching up supplies as they started across the long grassy field that separated the village from the site of the excitement, curiosity winning out over discretion. Holly needed to hurry, if there was anything left she could do anyway.

The moment Holly was in range, with a series of blinks she activated the thermal scanner in her helmet, her heart beating like a drum against the lining of her throat. The milliseconds it took for the scan to send back the result seemed to suddenly stretch and crawl by with the speed of ants moving across a crunchball field.

Then she saw them. Two warm bodies had blossomed on screen, one buried beneath the rubble of the explosion – the one that corresponded to the red dot that informed Holly where her suit was – and the other lying on the only remaining sea stack. The Mother Superior, Holly thought, but could not be sure as the rocks were usually distinguished by comparing the sizes directly.

Holly changed the filter and magnified the image on the second figure.

And there he was. Eyes open, gazing up at the sky, chest rising and falling as he breathed slowly in and out. Holly let out a long, slow breath.

_Still alive._

"Looks like our boy did it again," sighed Foaly in obvious relief. "Always knew he would pull through. Well anyway, I'm going to take off for a little while. I've got a few things to attend to, what with all this mayhem and these LEP personnel running around aboveground. Can you take it from here, Captain?"

"Of course. Hear from you in a bit, Foaly."

"Later then."

Holly terminated the link, then turned her attention back to the stack. Drifting carefully downward on the air currents, her initial euphoria of relief slowly receded, tempered by the state of her friend.

Holly was struck by how very small and alone the human looked, laying on that rock. He was clearly injured. Nothing life-threatening and certainly nothing as bad as in the gorilla cage, but Holly make out one shoulder sagging down, the arm completely limp as though it had been dislocated or the collarbone broken. He was literally covered from head to toe with endless bruises, tiny scrapes, and cuts, his usual bespoke suit torn with small ragged holes all over beneath a thin layer of dust and small bits of debris. Holly's gaze flickered around, and she noticed large pieces of broken rock strewn at random around where the boy laid. Only pure dumb luck could have kept him from being crushed.

But what troubled her more than Artemis's physical state was the expression on his face. He did not look like someone who had just had the triumph of outsmarting Opal Koboi by his own ingenuity; instead, it looked as though somehow he had been the one defeated.

Holly let down her shield and landed in front of him on the stack. Upon laying eyes on her, Artemis immediately opened his mouth to speak.

"You're flying," he commented, almost casually.

He still looked exhausted, but Holly saw something in his expression that changed the moment he saw her. A kind of defensive wall, shutting her out, determined to the last to keep others from seeing any weakness.

Holly realized for the first time that perhaps Artemis too thought to himself, _What will she think if she could see how depressed I've allowed myself to feel?_ That very same thought that had stalked her mind ever since she had returned from Hybras.

His statement on the surface may have appeared to simply be an observation of the obvious, and someone else might have wondered if Artemis Fowl, ever the acerbic critic of needlessly asserting that which any fool could see, could have received some sort of head injury in addition to everything else.

However, Holly had known her friend long enough to immediately recognize the comment as the question it was. After all, Opal had taken Holly's gear. It was amazing, really: even injured and probably in a great deal of pain, having his curiosity satisfied still came first for Artemis Fowl the Second.

"I borrowed a suit from Nº1's bodyguards," she replied, deciding not to go into details. "Well, I say borrowed..."

"How did you find me?"

Holly did not know whether she ought to be glad to find Artemis his usual inquisitive self, or pained to see him in this condition and acting so cavalier about it. She found it strange that for so long Artemis had been such confusing an individual to her, that she had trouble understanding what he was thinking, what drove him in moments like these. Now it seemed blatantly obvious, how he used these questions as a show of strength. She could tell how, even weak and helpless like this, in using his mind and controlling his emotions, Artemis could always without fail appear invincible.

And that was precisely why, despite the urge she felt pressing at her throat, Holly could not speak any words of comfort while he was laying here injured, her magical empathy, intensified by Nº1's powerful magic boost, drawing to her like a magnet the dull, oppressive sense of Artemis's mood. Because he needed that strength, and to acknowledge that he needed consoling at this moment in time would be like trying to take that strength away from him.

How strangely sad and lonely that thought made her feel. The separation which she could have tried to breach, but was afraid to. This emotion that expanded her chest with each intake of breath and closed it up again each time she breathed out wasn't the embarrassing, heart-pounding variety of her adolescent self. The feeling was more akin to what she had felt when her mother had died, or when she had seen Julius killed right before her eyes. Those were experiences that she would never forget, that had changed her. Because they had involved people that had changed her.

"Oh, I saw a huge explosion and wondered, Now who could that be?" she said, smiling slightly.

Artemis did not smile, but his tone was light like Holly's as he answered, "Hmm. A bit of a giveaway." Despite the joking tone, the edge of fatigue to his voice as he spoke was still unmistakable.

Holly was talking before she could help herself, as though Artemis was a robot, and the flow of information would get him running properly again.

"Also, I followed my old suit's radiation trail. I'm still following it." Holly turned her gaze to where the pixie had been buried alive and switched the filter on her helmet. "That's quite a pile of rocks you dumped on Opal," she added. "It's going to take a Retrieval team some time to dig her out. She's cursing like a tunnel dwarf down there." Holly switched off the filter and turned back to Artemis. Curious, but more than anything just wanting to hear the reassuring tones of his usual arrogant speeches about his schemes. "What did you do to her?"

"The seventh kraken," he replied simply. "The one Foaly missed because it was tubular rather than conical, I would guess. I picked it up on a weather satellite."

The clipped explanation was devoid of the usual smugness. It was just a statement of fact. The absence of the gloating tone made the words sound almost dead to her ears, and she could feel the chilling cold that seemed to have settled over him so strongly in her chest.

Holly gazed down at her friend. At this moment, he really didn't seem like the formidable genius criminal mastermind she had come to know. That powerful, undeniable force of nature known as Artemis Fowl who was always in control of everything, that made his enemies flinch and cringe in fear upon facing him as an adversary, that made his allies feel powerful, unstoppable when standing beside him.

When Artemis outsmarted Commander Root and Foaly that first time, outmaneuvered Cudgeon during the goblin insurrection, conquered Spiro and Opal with his ability to think so many steps ahead, spoke in powerful ringing tones before the Extinctionists as though casting his own _mesmer_ on the insane group – every time, he seemed so grand and terrifying, a force to be reckoned with. But here, all those impressive achievements seemed so far away. He was a mere child after all. A lost, lonely boy at last overwhelmed by all that had happened.

All his lies, all his scheming, rather than the unfathomably deep weaving of an infallible strategist, now seemed like little more than a desperate ploy by a young boy like any other, afraid of losing his mother. Yes, here was the tangible proof before her of what she had already realized, that that appearance of being so invulnerable, so unfailingly ruthless, was simply another part of the elaborate set of lies with which he surrounded himself. A ruse to help ensure his advantage and triumph.

Holly stood in the darkness under the immense expanse of stars, and found that seeing her friend and his intimidating powers of intellect brought so low was difficult to bear. But at least Holly could at last be secure in the knowledge of one thing. Seeing her friend like this would be enough to finally cure her once and for all.

When Holly had first returned from the past, and become herself again, she had had some time to think. Once she was able to get past all her confusion of adolescent hormonal impulses that had been clouding the issue from the beginning, she had come to the realization that she knew precisely what had prompted her to act the way she had.

Holly had to admit, if only to herself, that those intense feelings that had appeared at first to spring abruptly from nowhere had been latent in her for some time. For a long time she had refused to consciously acknowledge to herself the long-held deep fascination she had had for this genius Mud Boy. The mystery that surrounded the way he quickly crafted his brilliant schemes, the way it seemed he could never be beaten: it enticed her innate sense of adventure, her inner drive to be where the excitement was. Wasn't that why she had jumped at the chance to involve herself in the Hybras affair in the first place? To head out on another escapade with Artemis Fowl, to put an end to her sense of boredom and stagnation?

But even long before that, Holly recalled how she had acted back when they had been on the verge of erasing Artemis's memories of the fairy people. At the time, she had believed the two of them were never likely to cross paths again, and in that moment when she thought she had him under her spell she had been unable to keep herself from asking, unable to completely quell her interest in the human even then, _"How do you come up with these plans?"_ Artemis had replied, _"Natural ability, I suppose. Handed down by generations of Fowls." _

Such mystique. Such intrigue. And so, even when her curiosity was still of the disgusted, almost hostile variety, she could not say she wasn't still drawn in.

Of course, that interest had never once been the slightest bit romantic; he was a pre-teen minor upon their first encounter for crying out loud. But it had been only too easy for her suppressed fascination with his talents and unswerving faith in his ability to triumph over his enemies with his audacious plans to turn in that direction given the right conditions. That explained why even his blackmailing her had not been enough to curb her unwelcome emotions, because Holly realized now as she thought about the building exhilaration in her chest as she had watched Artemis cow the Extinctionists with his carefully crafted words that his remorseless execution of his grand designs was precisely part of what drew her in.

Here they were now, and Holly could see clearly Artemis Fowl, the real Artemis, as he was when stripped of his crafty, ice-cold exterior. Deep down, he was a child, with a great intellect perhaps, but also in great part shaped by a warped childhood. There was no denying the fortitude he possessed, especially for his age, but in conjunction with the strength was a young boy, who had to fight to conceal how full of regret and doubt and fear he was.

Holly did not think any the worse of him for this weakness beneath the armor – quite the contrary. But now that that aura of mystery surrounding her friend was finally peeled away, so too would be the unnatural fascination. At last the two of them could be proper friends, without anything else getting in the way. Things like suspicion, romantic inclinations, resentment, a wall of pretended strength that served as a protective barrier –

But as Holly stared at the boy lying amid the rubble and he stared back at her, waiting for her reply, she realized she had been completely wrong.

Holly knelt beside him, red sparks of Nº1's magic crackling off her fingertips as she touched one to the boy's wide forehead, the indicator of his great intellect. "Typical Artemis Fowl," she said, smiling softly. "Beaten to a pulp and still he delivers a lecture."

As Nº1's magic coursed through him, stitching up his injuries and making him as good as new, Holly could feel the magic restoring Artemis not only in body, but in spirit as well. He smiled. "Nice trick," he said, mismatched eyes strangely unfocused, a sharp contrast to their their usual penetrating awareness.

"I'm here till Tuesday," Holly joked, then added, "Nº1 filled my tank."

Yes, she had been wrong. Because Holly knew what she had wanted to chase after so much had not been a great genius criminal mastermind who could not be beaten, or the intrigue of someone with a vague air of mystery. Rather, the Artemis Fowl she saw before her now for this brief moment in time was the person her adolescent self would have most wanted to meet.

Still kneeling in the rock on top of the Mother Superior, Holly's fingers brushed at the newest model omnitool hanging from her belt, missing the old one she had been allowed to use again for a short time that she had received from her mother.

No, it was not the great, mysterious 'Artemis Fowl,' whose abilities left her in awe as he stood before the Extinctionists, or made unconcerned, off-hand comments after having just narrowly avoided death that she felt the most affection for, that had led her to make that silly tentative comment when they were sitting on the hood of that stolen Mini Cooper. Rather, it was 'Arty,' a boy whose ways were as familiar to her as any of that of her closest friends, who she could not help but trust implicitly. Because all along, what she had needed was to see the weaknesses along with the strengths. To be able to see beyond what seemed such an uneven divide between them, that choking sense of insecurity heightened in her vulnerable adolescent state that put her on edge as she worried over who was providing more to their partnership, that made her feel all too often like the inferior, less important playing piece.

Not that she had felt herself worth less as an individual; her beliefs on the inherent value of life were too ingrained for that. It was merely that, because of his almost supernatural abilities that went beyond her understanding, he so often seemed on a different plane of existence from her, so much that their minds could never quite touch again as they had at that moment as they stood in the magical circle on Hybras, holding hands, waiting to be brought back home. That sense of division still lingered, not entirely purged from among the feelings she still carried deep inside her. But this picture of weakness, so similar to the endless array of weaknesses that nibbled at her whenever her defenses were low, was the first step to dismantling it.

Artemis was still staring up at her, with vision probably made hazy by the magic. As Holly watched, the smile that had been on his face slowly faded from his features, like the fading of daylight.

"I'm sorry I lied to you, Holly," he said quietly, subdued, as though the strength of his emotion would smother him. "Truly. You've done so much." His voice sounded just short of breaking, so much like when just a few days ago, a few hours technically, when he had so bitterly called himself a liar and a thief, hit by the full weight of the betrayal that was, as his mother lay there on the verge of death.

And in that moment, Holly knew. She knew without the slightest hint of doubt as she looked at him while his guard was so low. See it is his eyes, feel it with Nº1's magic. There was no manipulation, no underlying motives. Here, in this moment at least, she could see clearly that she had somehow become one of the most important figures in this boy's life. Important enough to generate such strong emotions, such regret.

Holly's own faint smile faded from her features into a more contemplative, serious one.

Their positions were reversed now, it seemed. After all this time, from that moment when she had first woken up from Butler's darts outside Rathdown Park, just after a purely impulsive act that had been the catalyst to so many thoughts and feelings of anxiety, now things had finally come full circle. For once it was she who knew what he was thinking and feeling, not the other way around.

Holly broke eye contact, her gaze flickering away from his mismatched eyes, just as he had done before. She still looked down at his pale face, but with now with eyes that seemed to stare past him.

"Maybe you made the wrong decision," she said quietly. "Maybe I would have made that decision myself."

Now things were different. Her friend was feeble and weak, and she was the one who held all the power. She was the adult, the one in sound possession of both her mind and her body, and most of all she had the knowledge of what was going on in his mind. So the decision was up to her. If Holly wanted to continue on with that path she herself had first suggested back in the past, all she had to do was say the word. It would be the beginning of a new partnership of a different, more permanent kind, just as soon as he was old enough. A criminal and a police officer. A human and a fairy.

She gazed down at her helpless human friend, and she found herself thinking about what Julius Root had said to her before he died, about how she could do more good for the People if she accepted the promotion to major, even if she personally didn't like the job as well as being a Recon captain. As an officer of the LEP, it was her responsibility to carry out what was her duty, not do what she wanted. She was a caretaker of the peace, a guardian of others' welfare. And Artemis, too, was under her care.

Holly let out the barest hint of a breath, a silent sigh too quiet to hear, then said softly, "We're from different worlds, Artemis. We will always have doubts about each other." The words felt like the impenetrable surface of a set of steel blast doors sliding down between them, and she hesitated barely a second before she brought them down with a clang in a kind, gentle voice, "Let's just carry on and leave the past in the past, where it should be."

Artemis gazed back at her for a moment, and wisps of sadness seemed to blow gently across Holly's face as though through her empathy she could feel the emotion as a real physical substance.

Then the boy closed his eyes. He gave one silent nod, accepting her forgiveness, but also her decision. To so meekly concede a battle was unlike him, but it was obvious that there was no fight in him at the moment. And perhaps, on this subject at least, there would never be.

Holly smiled gently, almost wistfully for a moment. Then, tugging a long retractable cord from her belt, she wrapped it securely around Artemis and by the time she had lifted off the ground with her young human friend in tow, he was sound asleep. It was little wonder, what with the major healing he had just undergone and the sheer amount of tense situations they had undergone for the last three days. As Holly listened to the sound of his deep and rhythmic breathing, she hoped to herself he would soon be able to get enough rest to recover from their latest misadventure. And the same went for her.

* * *

><p>While Holly was occupied making certain to keep out of range of the villagers' probing flashlights as they made their way toward The Nuns, one of which was little more than an unimpressive pile of scattered rock, Foaly's voice came back into her helmet once again.<p>

"The seventh kraken, I'm guessing," he noted almost lazily, in that tone of exaggerated lack of awe that he always seemed to reserve just for Artemis's accomplishments. "Of course, I had my suspicions."

Foaly was quiet for a moment. Then, his voice low as though afraid of being overheard, he said, "This would be a good opportunity to mind-wipe Artemis. Save ourselves a lot of grief in the future."

Perhaps he had expected Holly to laugh, or use the comment as an opportunity to launch into a tirade about the ordeal Artemis had just put her through. However, Holly couldn't. It had been one thing when she had been forced to take part in precisely that course of action back after the incident with Jon Spiro, when she had been _almost_ starting to not totally despise him, but now the mere suggestion made her insides turn cold.

"Foaly!" Holly began, shocked. "We don't wipe our friends." Before she had time to think, she was speaking quickly, arguments continuing to pour from her mouth as though she had suddenly been placed in a courtroom and it was up to her to stop an irreversible verdict from being passed. "Artemis brought Jayjay back to us. Who knows how many cures lie in that lemur's brain."

She would have gone on, but Foaly cut in, "I'm kidding. I'm kidding." He seemed a little taken aback. He went on hurriedly, deftly shifting the subject, "And guess what, we won't even have to ask Jayjay to donate some brain fluid."

Foaly's attempt to distract her was successful, and Holly was glad to see how much her nickname for the lemur was catching on.

"Nº1 synthesized it while he was waiting for the shuttle," Foaly went on. "That kid is one of a kind."

"I seem to run into a lot of those," Holly noted dryly. "By the way, we need to send in a team for Opal."

"They're en route." Foaly added, this time with a hint of amusement, "I think you're in for another rake over the coals from IA when you get back here."

Yep, after three years passed without her, some things never changed.

"What's new?"

Foaly was quiet again for a long moment, apparently waiting for Holly to start into the story of all their exploits and tribulations during their adventure in the past. Finally he sighed.

"Okay, you win," he said grudgingly. "I'll ask. What happened back then – almost eight years ago? My gods, it must have been mayhem."

That had to be the understatement of a lifetime. Utter and absolute chaos did not even begin to describe the half of it. Stuffed in a trunk by an evil younger Artemis, teamed up with a Mulch Diggums who didn't know them, threatened or basically mauled in Artemis's case by a four-hundred-pound mountain gorilla, put on trial as an unwanted creature to all of humanity, nearly suffocated by an out-of-control Extinctionist – there was a lot to talk about. Yet strangely, at that moment, there was only one memory that crossed Holly's mind.

"Nothing," she replied briskly. "Nothing happened. We went, we got the lemur, we came back. A couple glitches, but obviously nothing we couldn't handle."

Foaly probably passed this off as typical Recon jock bravado, and apparently decided not to push for answers just then. The conversation once again lapsed into silence for a moment. Finally he asked, perhaps in a bit of a snide response to her tough attitude, though his tone was serious, "Do you ever think you might like to go to work and then just come home? No drama?"

Holly said nothing at first, simply staring down at the dark waters of the ocean rushing past below. She readjusted her grip on the Mud Boy hanging in her arms.

"No," she said with the hint of a smile. "I never think that."

Artemis may have been dead certain about all but a few things. But for her, that was at least the one thing she could be certain of.

* * *

><p>Almost as though he had a built-in digital alarm inside him, Artemis's eyes opened at the precise moment the two of them hit the driveway of Fowl Manor.<p>

"Magic is wonderful stuff," he sighed, rotating his left arm and massaging the place where his collarbone had knit itself back together.

"You should have held onto yours," Holly returned smartly. She had a feeling she would probably crash the moment she hit her futon back at her apartment, but for the moment she was riding a We-all-made-it-out-alive high, and she felt as charged up as a new ion battery.

However, she immediately regretted opening her mouth as Artemis replied by saying, "Ironically, if I had not attempted to cure Mother, Opal would have allowed her to recover. It was my journey into the past that gave Opal the basis for her plan, which she instigated by following us to her future."

This was probably a repeat of something he had said before, but Holly couldn't be sure as she comprehended it about as well as she did most of Artemis's lectures. Holly undid the cord around Artemis and let it snake back into her belt. "I liked you better asleep," she muttered. "My head hurt less."

Nº1 was waiting on the front steps with his collection of bodyguards, Jayjay resting atop his head. Holly went on ahead of Artemis to meet him, and it occurred to her that the little demon and lemur should have been belowground by now. Nº1 must have convinced the shuttle and his bodyguards to wait here for his two friends' return.

_It must be nice to be an all-powerful demon warlock,_ she thought.

Artemis came up behind her and, after a surprisingly affectionate reunion with Jayjay, his next order of business as control freak of the world was to find out exactly what had happened with each and every loose end he himself had not personally attended to.

"Where is Dr. Schalke?"

"He collapsed once Opal departed," Nº1 answered. "Butler put him in a guest room."

"And Artemis Junior?"

Nº1 was not one for getting straight to the point, and he chuckled before saying, "Technically, you are Artemis Junior." Artemis remained patient however and Nº1 added, still smiling, "But I know what you are trying to ask me. Your younger self has been transported back to his own time."

As Nº1 went into more detail, Holly slumped slightly with relief. Having his younger self here in this time had been a incredible risk to Artemis. With two Artemises around, something happening to one would spell disaster for the other, and so that was only double the liability. Plus, Holly was eager to be as far away as physically possibly from someone with sabotage and blackmail on the brain, who had managed to catch her at the worst possible moment and had the nerve to practically gloat about it later.

Holly unconsciously tapped the handle of her Neutrino in its holster in nervous agitation. _How will the changes we made to what he knows affect us here in the present? _she wondered._ Has it already started?_

"I know we promised not to wipe him," Holly began uncertainly, frowning, "but I'm not particularly thrilled that there's a little Fowl running around with fairy knowledge in his devious skull."

Artemis glanced at her, his arms still full with Jayjay. "Devious skull? Charming."

Holly shrugged, unrepentant. "Hey, if the flap fits..."

Nº1 blinked, and he looked back and forth between them, suddenly nervous. He got slowly to his feet, as though about to formally deliver some bad news.

"About this no mind-wiping promise," he began. "The thing is, nobody told me."

Holly felt a leap of hope in her chest, but she kept her face under control. She wanted to make sure first, and it was probably better to be sensitive anyway as Artemis wasn't liable to be too happy about this development. "So you wiped him?" she asked in a carefully detached, diplomatic tone.

"And Schalke," the little demon admitted guiltily. "I also left a residual spell in young Artemis's eyeballs so Butler will get it too. Nothing fancy, just a blanket memory loss. Their brains will fill in the gaps, invent believable memories."

This wasn't much different than the methods generally employed by the LEP in using mind-wiping equipment, but Holly couldn't stop herself wincing and wrinkling her nose anyway. "You left a spell in his eyeballs? That is revolting."

Artemis, shifting his hold on the contentedly purring Jayjay, commented mildly, "Revolting but ingenious."

Holly blinked. She turned her head to peer at her friend in confusion. Holly could not remember precisely when it was, but she was certain that she had once heard Artemis say that his memories and knowledge were more important to him than anything, and he preferred to keep them all no matter how unpleasant they were. Or perhaps it was something she had gleaned from his head when their minds had been connected during the journey back from Hybras. But in any case, it seemed strange he could be so glib about seeing a version of himself treated so disrespectfully, having a promise made to him point-blank broken and as a result having his mind tampered with against his will.

However, it was almost like Artemis did not consider his younger self a part of him, and so offenses against the boy were not against Artemis himself. Holly got the distinct sense that Artemis was as glad to be rid of the young Fowl as Holly was, maybe more so. Or maybe Holly was reading too much into it.

Aloud Holly observed, "You don't seem too indignant. I was expecting a speech. Rolling eyes, flapping arms, the whole Fowl thing."

"I knew it would happen," Artemis replied dismissively. "I didn't remember anything, so I must have been wiped, therefore we must have won."

Holly gaped at him, and realized that she actually followed his logic, stupidly circuitous and warped as it was. "You always knew," she said, shaking her head. Seeing Artemis here like this, comfortable in his usual role, it was hard to think of that depressed boy on the Mother Superior.

_Already back in fine form, I see._

Artemis smiled slightly, and he looked a little tired for the first time since he'd awoken from Holly's magical makeover. "I didn't know what the cost would be."

* * *

><p>Artemis made sure to arrange with Nº1 to send back a note once the two of them returned to Tara, the note that would initiate their partnership with the Mulch Diggums in the past. However, once that was done, it seemed that at last Artemis had looked into everything that needed taken care of. With nothing to occupy him, he seemed to grow just a little melancholy again. Artemis's eyes rose to the room where his mother still rested, and Jayjay, prying himself free of Artemis's arms and scaling the boy like a tree to stand on his shoulder, imitated his human friend.<p>

"I'm afraid to go up, for some reason," he said, almost nervously, and it was hard to tell whether he was speaking to Jayjay or himself. He fidgeted with his now free hands, but jammed them into the pockets of his ruined suit jacket when he realized what he was doing. "What she must have been through," he said quietly, "all because of my meddling. What she must have..."

"Don't forget us," said Nº1 perking up, eager to get his share of the apology. "We were submerged in animal fat. You have no idea how gross that is." He added fervently, "Eyeball spells are the epitome of good taste compared to animal fat."

Holly smiled. Nº1 certainly knew how to break the tension; perhaps he had met Mulch after all.

Holly couldn't resist a jibe of her own. "I was turned into a adolescent," she said with a wink. "Now, _that_ was gross."

Artemis's eyes were amused, but his returning smile had a tight, lemon-sucking quality about it.

"Strangely, all this guilt-tripping is not making me feel any better. The DNA cannons aren't helping either."

A dozen of Nº1's bodyguards, now apparently also Jayjay's guards, had their DNA-coded rifles trained on Artemis's chest, in case the human did something they didn't like. It was a little excessive in Holly's way of thinking, but then again the guards' charge had just nearly died in a barrel of fat while they had been forced to wait outside.

Holly waved at them to lower their weapons, but was distracted by a message that flashed in her visor.

"There's a chopper coming in," she said abruptly, shooting a look at Artemis. "Your father. We've got to fly."

Nº1 happily jumped in to clarify for Artemis's benefit. "And that's not just a figure of speech. We actually have to fly. I know humans use that expression even when they don't intend to actually fly, so just to avoid confusion..."

Normally Artemis would have dropped a smart comment by this point, but instead all he said was, his face strangely gentle, "I get it, Nº1."

Nº1 grinned as his group of guards congregated around him and lifted the little demon into the air, carrying him off to where the shuttle was parked in the courtyard around back.

Holly was the last to go.

She offered Jayjay her arm and the lemur cooperatively hopped off Artemis's shoulder. The little creature scurried up her arm and came to rest on her shoulder, gripping her helmet.

"He will be safer with us."

"I know."

Artemis had not moved. But then at last his gaze shifted to meet hers, his mismatched eyes piercing without even trying, as always. However, this time she thought she caught just a hint of something else mixed in. Warmth, maybe. Regret.

And for just one childish moment, she wanted desperately to take it back.

But then Holly had gotten a hold of herself once more and instead she used her wings to tap off the ground, lifting up to hover before him. "In another time," she said with gentle finality, kissing him lightly on the cheek.

Artemis's face was unreadable as he turned and started back toward the manor entrance.

As Holly watched him go, a knot of pain twisted in her stomach and her smile melted away.

_Take it back._

Somehow, she did not want to let him go like this. She did not want to let go.

Her mouth was dry as she tried to soothe her tight stomach. Not until Artemis reached the front door, hand extended toward the latch, was she finally able to speak.

But she would not take it back. It was not for the best. She saw only misery and oppressive obstacles in that kind of future, and it was her responsibility to make sure that didn't come to pass. What she needed here most of all was to be strong. Strong, like Artemis – the strength to be cruel in order to be kind.

Such twisted logic, she mused. Did she really believe in such a thing? Had she decided that Artemis had been right to do what he did in lying to her? No, she knew, she still didn't know for sure what to think about that. But there was something about the general principle of such self-sacrifice in certain situations that resonated with the sort of person she wanted to be, that Julius or her mother would have wanted her to be. Artemis had a long way to go learning about kindness and selflessness, but on this trip she had come to believe that perhaps he had the right instincts after all. He had a right to know that much at least.

"You know something, Fowl?" she called casually, using that old tone and manner she had always used before whenever she used to talk to Artemis Fowl the Second, first interspecies thief, with the barely concealed hostility, begrudging every compliment paid. Yet there was now underneath it a strong pulse of sincere goodwill and even affection that had not been there all that time ago when she had once told him he had a spark of decency. "You did a good thing here," she continued. "For its own sake. Not one penny of profit."

She remembered again young Artemis, throwing away his diamonds to save her life, then later saying, _"I thought if I saved the creature's life you might end up back here with my lemur."_ The lie that was so obvious. Because she knew the real reason, that he hadn't been able to stop himself, thanks to that spark of decency that she knew burned inside him. But even confronted with that truth, he had still refused to openly acknowledge it. She had a different hope for the Artemis of the present, however. She hoped he at least would willingly accept that part of himself, to not only learn to forgive himself for what he once was, but forgive himself for the good person he was becoming, bit by bit. However, it would take work.

"I know," said Artemis without turning around, and with just a hint of a smile in his voice. "I'm appalled."

Yes, a typical Artemis Fowl response. The resemblance to his younger self was still there; he still had a long ways to go yet. But Artemis was young still – he had plenty of time, at least for a human.

Holly might have laughed, but somehow, instead, the familiarity of the joking quality of their usual interaction made her throat suddenly tighten, burning.

Determined not to let Artemis catch a glimpse of her expression or body language, she put down her visor and took control of Foaly's newest model wings. Turning lithely in midair, she shot off silently through the night sky.

* * *

><p>Holly tore upwards through the warm summer air, until she was hovering above the Fowl estate. Though it may have been faster and easier to go around, she just needed a moment; she wanted to be up high.<p>

This place, with the old style of architecture of the enormous mansion, its expensive furnishings and old oil paintings, the expansive gardens, pastures, and forest areas, its high stone walls and gravel driveway that lead to the large, formidable double doors at the front of the main building protected by all kinds of hidden state-of-the-art security – It was all so familiar, the same to Holly as it had always been. However, her feelings toward it had now changed. But that was a natural change, a feeling of _the same yet not the same _that did not unnerve her.

It occurred to Holly that, when she had come back from Hybras, the entire world had shifted while she had been left the same. But after this mission everything was reversed: The world remained as it was, and she was the one who was altered.

Holly thought she could make out the sound of rotary blades chopping through the sky in the far distance. A helicopter.

With one last look over the grounds, Holly took off again over the manor, heading for the courtyard where the shielded fairy shuttle waited to take her home – or at least back to Haven.

Holly felt Jayjay's tiny hands gripping her shoulder through her suit as the cool night air whipped past her, and she breathed in that clear, aboveground air through her helmet filters. She pushed Foaly's mechanical wings a bit faster, as though she could lose the thoughts swirling around her head far behind her with the trailing wind if she just went fast enough.

She landed by the entrance to the ship, Jayjay clinging to her back where her mechanical wings retracted back into their grooves in her suit.

Holly was aware her shoulders were shaking sightly. Even now, she still wanted to go back. There was so much she still wanted to say, and it felt the words would burn a hold through her throat in their desperation to be free. If she could not go back now, then she wanted it to be tomorrow, or the day after that, or in a few years. Someday, sometime.

But that was impossible. This decision was absolutely final, because it was for the sake of the future.

Elves were always known for being typically among the most emotional when it came to the eight fairy families, for thinking all too often with their hearts. But they had more than enough wits to be pragmatic and logical when necessity called for it.

Right now was a moment for cool thought, for acting in a way that was the most logical. Because she knew what waited for them both at the end of that road should she have thoughtlessly tried to lead Artemis down it. Misery, pain, and obstacles so numerous and oppressive they would overshadow and choke out any small shred of happiness.

Holly knew what would happen, stubbornly trying to bridge the gap between worlds. First they would both become objects of derision and ridicule on the side of her people, all disgusted with her betrayal of fairy culture and his seduction of one of their own. On the human side, it would create the necessity for more secrets and lies in Artemis's life than he had already, even where his own family was concerned. Other humans would know Artemis, but to them she could never exist. Both of these things, which they would be able to endure magnificently in the short-term thanks to their naturally defiant personalities, would nevertheless grate on them in the longterm. Then there were the inevitable long months of separation as they both continued to pursue their own dreams from the places they had grown up in. If they still wanted to achieve their goals, they would have no choice but to continue on with things much the way they had always been. Then there was their severe personality clash, with Artemis's manipulativeness and her hot temper. And of course, no matter how much her magic might lengthen his lifespan, eventually Artemis would grow old and die while she was still in the prime of life.

On and on the list went, with so many other unforeseeable hardships and sacrifices they would both have to be make to sustain such an outlandish scheme over any length of time. By the end of it, they would probably hate each other.

These were all the things she knew in her mind, the strength of the logic too strong to get around. So, even if Holly had wanted to strive, to reach out and seize the illusory image of what could be that at the moment seemed in her chest so much more appealing to her...

"_...Nothing else matters to me, not even my own future."_

Maybe such a sentiment really could apply here.

Of course, the raging conflict inside her was still far from over. Her determination was still not strong enough to completely stamp out the fanciful notions that played at the back of her mind, of conquering every obstacle that came their way and overcoming every difficulty. The option to abandon her convictions, to wipe away the line she had drawn was still available even now, and it gnawed at her resolve. And the fact that she was well aware that she was inflicting pain through what she had chosen reached out slimy tentacles to her as a convenient excuse to change her mind, warring with the other knowledge of the pain they would endure in the far off future if she didn't maintain her ground. It was an irreconcilable conflict she knew, this causing injury in order to protect. But that was the trap of a paradox.

Holly felt a sort of thumping against the top of her helmet, small jerky swats against the top of her head, almost as though she was being comforted.

Holly felt a small, sad smile spread slowly across her lips as she heard through her helmet layer Jayjay making his odd purring noise somewhere near her ear.

Thank you, Commander, she thought. Even if it isn't really you.

The hatch came open and a long steel ramp slid down until it hit the cobblestone ground with a _clunk_. A small figure was waiting for them at the entrance, beaming. With a screech of delight, Jayjay leaped down from Holly's shoulders and loped up the walkway to Nº1.

For a moment, Holly stood alone at the end of the ramp, separated from those in the ship.

Holly's mind flickered back to that clear, sharp memory of that day she had returned from Hybras and, just like now, she had stood right at the bottom of the gangplank of the rescue ship. Artemis had been standing beside her then, the two of them both covered from head to toe in ash and soot, thrilled to have made it through yet another treacherous misadventure alive.

"Holly?"

Holly started, then began to head up the long walkway, putting on her best smile for Nº1's sake.

This feeling wouldn't last forever, she knew, this vague disconsolation that sucked the color from things. It would fade soon enough. After all, technically this was only an aftereffect of having been an adolescent for a little while. The longer she stayed in her proper adult body, the more distance she would gain, the more resolved she would be on her decision, and the more protection her emotional state would have, until she could be certain she was safe from making a thoughtless, rash choice that would destroy them both. If she refused to water and feed them, these temporary emotions would wither and dry up before long until these feelings toward her young human friend were as they should be again.

And there was no need to worry about Artemis; he would probably forget even sooner than she did. After all, besides where his parents were concerned, his impressive memory and intellect did not generally extend to his emotions.

Nº1's grin slowly faded as Holly reached the top of the gangplank.

"What's the matter?" he asked anxiously.

Holly wondered if Nº1 was better at reading expressions than she'd given him credit for or if she simply wasn't doing a good job of concealing her thoughts after all, but then remembered his stronger-than-average magical empathy.

"Didn't we win, Holly?" he asked, looking at her with big, round yellow eyes. "Mission accomplished?"

Holly said, smiling, "That's right, Nº1."

But the little demon was still looking at her uncertainly, so she stretched her smile a bit wider and put an arm around him from the side in a quick hug, Jayjay sitting perched on Nº1's shoulder between them.

"A happy ending," she said, as the ramp slid back up and the door shut with a clang behind her. "Through and through."

And it would be – for her as well. After all, just how long could the effects of a mission gone a bit awry last?

* * *

><p>AN:

And that's it. The end! It's strange to think that I first began writing this almost a year and a half ago, the thirty-first of January, 2011... Time goes by fast. (Yeah, whenever I write something in my notebooks, I have a habit of obsessively dating it, lol.) No, I didn't change the ending to make Artemis and Holly get together. XD To tell the truth, the way TTP finished up leaving things unresolved was one of the things that made me like it so much, lol, and made we want to write this story in the first place. I guess I'm a little strange for an A/H-shipper. (;

So anyway, the prologue's up for the next fanfiction already, and I'm working on finishing up chapter 1. I'll be hoping to see you there! (: (People are still interested in fanfictions besides post-TLG ones, right?) Oh, and something I didn't mention last time, unlike with this story, I did put the tag 'A/H' in the summary. (;

Some final words: Thank you so much for reading this, and for all your comments. I've really appreciated them all. If you've been reading this or even just skimmed/skipped around to read certain favorite parts of TTP, and haven't commented before now, I hope you'll consider doing so now, I'd love to hear what you thought. (: (Even if you come across this ten years from now, I still want to hear from you! :D ) Thank you very much, and hope you all have a wonderful year.

-Rocket

Posted 7/31/12


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